How to Buy Cognex Stock
Cognex Corp
Cognex Corporation provides machine vision products that capture and analyze visual information in order to automate manufacturing and distribution tasks worldwide.
Cognex stock last closed at $66.70, down 2.39% from the previous day, and has increased 117.12% in one year. It has overperformed other stocks in the Scientific & Technical Instruments industry by 0.74 percentage points. Cognex stock is currently +128.27% from its 52-week low of $29.22, and -7.23% from its 52-week high of $71.90.
As of May 27, 2026, there are 166.42M shares of CGNX outstanding. The market capitalization of CGNX is $11.10B. In the last 24 hours, 2.45M CGNX shares were traded.
How to Buy Cognex Stock
Not sure how to invest in Cognex stock? Here's how.
- Decide where to buy Cognex stock: You need to decide on an online brokerage, but don't worry - we've tested dozens of online stock brokerages and apps to help you figure out where to buy Cognex stock.
- Open a brokerage account: Sign up for 0% commission trading with the highest-rated brokerage we've selected.
- Fund your investment account: Choose your method of payment and add your info.
- Analyze Cognex stock: The Cognex ticker symbol is CGNX. Is Cognex stock a good investment? Should you buy shares of CGNX? How do CGNX's underlying business fundamentals look? Do top analysts think Cognex is a good buy? Why has CGNX's stock price moved recently? (Hint: Our stock market research tools can help you evaluate if CGNX is a good stock to buy).
- Execute your CGNX purchase: Decide if you will purchase CGNX shares at the current market price or use a limit order to buy CGNX shares at a particular price.
- Get updates on your investment in CGNX: Create a watchlist to keep tabs on your position in Cognex shares.
Step 1: Decide where to buy Cognex stock
You will need an online brokerage account in order to access the NASDAQ market and buy CGNX stock.
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Open eToro AccountStep 2: Open a brokerage account
Now that you've chosen your brokerage, you'll need to fill out some personal information so you are able to invest in CGNX today.
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Step 3: Fund your investment account
Now that you've created your account on one of the best stock market apps, you can securely and quickly fund your account:
Check out the walkthrough below if you need help depositing funds into your new brokerage account.
Step 4: Analyze Cognex stock
Once you have chosen the best place to buy Cognex stock, it's very important to evaluate their stock before you invest, so you actually wrap your head around the risk as well as the opportunity.
Cognex stock quick numbers
CGNX Due Diligence Score
WallStreetZen was created to help part-time investors perform more accurate fundamental analysis in minutes instead of hours.
You can see all of the due diligence checks on CGNX's stock page.
Is CGNX stock undervalued or overvalued?
Analysts use many financial metrics, analyses, models, and charts to gauge CGNX's fair value.
Using relative valuations ratios:
- CGNX may be undervalued based on its P/E ratio of 78.47x, relative to Scientific & Technical Instruments industry P/E ratio of 78.71x
- CGNX could be overvalued based on its P/B ratio of 7.51x, relative to Scientific & Technical Instruments industry P/B ratio of 4.92x
- CGNX could be overvalued based on its PEG ratio of 2.22x
You can access more valuation analysis on CGNX's stock here.
Is CGNX a healthy company?
Signs that CGNX is financially healthy:
- CGNX profit margin has gone up from 12.8% to 13.6% in the past year.
- There are more short-term assets than long-term liabilities on the CGNX balance sheet.
- CGNX's operating cash flow of $250.11M allows it to safely service it's debt of $74.02M.
- CGNX has a low debt to equity ratio of 0.36.
- Total CGNX debt is lower than 5 years ago, relative to shareholder equity.
- There are more short-term assets than short-term liabilities on the CGNX balance sheet.
- CGNX earnings of $216.76M is not sufficient to cover its interest payments.
Is it a good time to buy Cognex stock, according to Wall Street analysts?
Out of 10 sell side analysts who give forecasts on CGNX, the consensus analyst rating on Cognex is a Strong Buy
Please note that analyst forecasts are not recommendations, nor are they financial advice.
Latest CGNX Analyst Upgrades/Downgrades
Jamie Cook, a top 4% analyst from Truist Securities maintains CGNX with a hold rating and raises their CGNX price target from $50.00 to $61.00, on May 8, 2026.
James Ricchiuti, a top 1% analyst from Needham maintains CGNX with a buy rating and raises their CGNX price target from $67.00 to $75.00, on May 8, 2026.
Tommy Moll, a top 7% analyst from Stephens & Co. maintains CGNX with a strong buy rating and raises their CGNX price target from $65.00 to $75.00, on May 7, 2026.
Stephens & Co.'s Tommy Moll raised their price target on Cognex (NASDAQ: CGNX) by 15.4% from $65 to $75 on 2026/05/07. The analyst maintained their Strong Buy rating on the stock.
Cognex Corp. reported its Q1 2026 earnings.
Raising their price target, Moll cited results and guidance "both ahead of consensus."
The analyst detailed that they raised their FY 2026 and FY 2027 adjusted EBITDA estimates after assessing the print.
Earnings Report
For Q1 2026, Cognex Corp. reported:
- EPS of $0.34, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.25 and Q1 2025's $0.16.
- Revenue of $268.44M, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 9.84% and Q1 2025's $216.04M.
For Q2 2026, management guided:
- EPS of $0.40 to $0.44.
- Revenue of $280M to $300M.
President & CEO Matt Moschner commented: “Since the CEO transition was announced a year ago, we’ve moved with urgency to focus our strategy, strengthen execution, and position Cognex for sustainable, profitable growth.
“This was evident in Q1, highlighted by the launch of two breakthrough AI vision systems, the completion of the trading business divestiture, and continued execution toward our announced cost reduction target.
"We believe that this progress is clearly reflected in our Q1 results, with an exceptional start to the year and broad‑based outperformance during the quarter.
"Our latest AI vision products reinforce our technology leadership and objective of becoming the #1 provider of AI‑powered machine vision.
"By combining our industry-leading AI vision tools with high-performance embedded systems and the scalability of OneVision™, we’re enabling customers to solve more complex inspection challenges at the edge – faster, easier, and without the cost and complexity of PC-based architectures."
Helen Fang, a top 39% analyst from HSBC upgrades CGNX to a strong buy rating and raises their CGNX price target from $47.00 to $68.00, on Feb 17, 2026.
Ken Newman, a top 4% analyst from KeyBanc maintains CGNX with a strong buy rating and raises their CGNX price target from $50.00 to $70.00, on Feb 13, 2026.
You can dive deeper into what analysts are projecting on the Cognex stock forecast page.
CGNX Technicals
CGNX Earnings
Last year, CGNX earnings were $142.54M. In the past five year, CGNX's earnings have increased by -8% per year. This was slower than the Scientific & Technical Instruments industry average of 4.07%.
Last year, CGNX revenue was $1.05B. During the past 5 year, CGNX's revenue has gone up by 3.47% per year. This was slower than the Scientific & Technical Instruments industry average of 10.1%.
You can analyze CGNX's earnings and revenue performance here.
What are CGNX insiders up to?
Over the past 12 months, executives and large shareholders at CGNX have sold more shares than they have bought.
Laura Ann MacDonald, VP and PAO of CGNX, was the latest CGNX insider to buy. They bought $287,981.00 worth of CGNX shares on May 12, 2026.
Get more info about who owns CGNX stock here.
Can I rely on CGNX as an income stream?
Cognex pays a dividend of 0.5%, compared to the Scientific & Technical Instruments industry's average dividend yield of 0.63%. If you owned $1,000 worth of CGNX stock, you would have received $5.02 last year.
Cognex dividend payments have consistently grown over the past decade but have not remained stable.
Get more info about Cognex dividend yield and history here.
What do other investors have to say about CGNX?
One of the major reasons eToro is our favorite brokerage is because of its social trading community.
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Step 5: Execute your CGNX purchase
There are two main types of orders:
- Market order: A market order is an order to buy or sell a stock at the best price on the market.
Market orders are generally sufficient. - Limit order: A limit order lets you buy or sell a security at a specific price (or better).
If you want to be certain you're buying or selling at a given dollar amount limit, use a limit order.
Press the Open button and your broker will execute the order.
If you want more help with buying stocks on eToro, click the helpful video below:
Step 6: Get updates on your investment in CGNX
Now that you own some CGNX stock, you'll want to keep up with your investment.
Start a watchlist to track your CGNX stock.
CGNX Feed
How to Buy Stock in Cognex
To reiterate, here are the 6 steps you need to take to buy Cognex stock right now:
- Decide where to buy Cognex stock
- Open a brokerage account
- Fund your investment account
- Analyze Cognex stock
- Execute your CGNX purchase
- Get updates on your investment in CGNX
If you require a brokerage account, eToro is our recommended venue.
Get Started with eToro TodayIf you would like to get the latest scoop on your new investment in Cognex, add CGNX to your watchlist by clicking the button below.
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