Cognex Corp vs Coherent Corp

Cognex Corp (CGNX) is overvalued and Coherent Corp (COHR) is slightly undervalued.

Against our estimates of intrinsic value, COHR trades at the wider discount: a margin of safety of +16%, against -219% for CGNX.

Values as of the 22 Sept 2026 close.

Cognex Corp (CGNX)

Discounting its cash flows at 11.6% (average of 3 methods) values the shares at $18.46; the price of $58.97 is 219% above that value, and 67% of that value comes from beyond year five.

Leak Score 27/100 on 3 of 12 signals

Coherent Corp (COHR)

A 10.4x revenue multiple, adjusted for growth and margin, values the shares at $367.54; the price of $310.39 is 16% below that value.

Leak Score 50/100 on 9 of 12 signals

MetricCGNXCOHR
VerdictOvervaluedSlightly undervalued
Price$58.97$310.39
Intrinsic value$18.46$367.54
Margin of safety-219%+16%
Leak Score27/100 (3/12)50/100 (9/12)
Market cap$9.9B$60.8B
Revenue growth, 5 years4.2%18.0%
Operating margin21.9%13.8%
Net margin16.1%10.8%
Return on equity11.2%8.5%
Debt to equity0.040.33
P/E57.1x75.5x
Forward P/E29.4x22.1x
P/B6.1x5.6x
Dividend yield0.6%0.0%

All stocks in Scientific & Technical Instruments