Q1 2026 revenue was $268.4M, up 24% year over year, with 71.1% gross margin and 22.3% GAAP operating margin.
From Portfolio Manager reports
Security report / CGNX
CGNX Operating Console
Cognex is working operationally: revenue, margins, free cash flow, and balance-sheet quality have improved. The report tracks the harder question after the rerating: whether Q2 execution, order breadth, gross-margin durability, AI vision adoption, and buyback discipline can justify a premium multiple.
Ticker
CGNX
Knowledge reviewed
2026-07-04
Links checked
2026-07-05
Chart source
Local API
Module 01 / Price
API required
Selected-Security Chart
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Module 02 / Proof window
Execution test
Current Company View
Next read
Q2 must deliver the $280M-$300M revenue guide and 28%-31% adjusted EBITDA margin without looking like timing-driven demand.
The operating recovery is visible; the proof burden is whether it is broad, repeatable, and worth the current multiple.
Local market data through July 2, 2026 showed an $11.0B market cap and roughly 41.5x estimated EV/TTM adjusted EBITDA.
Q2 revenue, adjusted EBITDA margin, gross margin bridge, customer breadth, AI product adoption, share count, SBC, and repurchase price.
Q1 revenue
$268.4M
Up 24% year over year
Gross margin
71.1%
Q1 2026; mix and volume helped
Adj. EBITDA margin
26.9%
Q2 guide: 28%-31%
Cash / debt
$621.9M / $0
Cash plus investments, no debt
FCF
$42M
Q1 2026 company-reported free cash flow
Largest customer
15%
2025 revenue concentration
Trade Plan
Selected Security Trade Plan
Exposure Map
Business Profile, Segments, And Exposure
CGNX is a focused machine-vision supplier. The one-segment disclosure makes end-market proof more important than headline revenue alone.
Business model
High-margin machine vision
Cognex sells vision systems, sensors, software, ID products, and application-specific solutions into factory automation, logistics, consumer electronics, semiconductor, packaging, automotive, and other industrial markets.
Disclosure map
One reported segment
The company-level recovery is clear, but product-line, customer, geography, and end-market profitability are not separately disclosed enough to prove which pockets are structurally better.
Factory automation and logistics
Core recovery channel.
2025 growth was helped by logistics and consumer electronics, and Q1 2026 was supported by broad end-market strength.
More useful evidence
Order breadth, repeat deployments, backlog quality, and customer timing commentary.
Consumer electronics and China
Mixed growth-quality signal.
Regional procurement shifts and China exposure can make reported growth look stronger or weaker than durable demand.
More useful evidence
Regional revenue, customer concentration, and whether one-time programs explain the growth.
Tariffs and components
Margin offset to watch.
The Q1 release cited favorable mix and volume, with tariffs offsetting some gross-margin improvement.
More useful evidence
Gross-margin bridge, tariff mitigation, component availability, and pricing actions.
AI-enabled vision
Strategic option, not yet proven revenue.
In-Sight 6900 and In-Sight 3900 support the product narrative, but independent adoption and win-rate evidence remain missing.
More useful evidence
Named deployments, revenue contribution, win rates, and margin durability.
Value Driver Board
Relative Value And Value Drivers
The stock has already priced a better operating model, so each driver has to connect to per-share durability.
Revenue recovery
$994.4M to $268.4M Q1
2025 revenue recovered 9%, then Q1 2026 revenue rose 24% year over year.
Next: Q2 guide delivery and order breadth.
Margin model
71.1% gross margin
Volume, mix, and cost discipline need to survive tariffs, incentives, and product mix normalization.
Next: Q2 adjusted EBITDA margin and gross-margin bridge.
Cash conversion
$237M FY2025 FCF
Low capex and strong operating cash flow reduce solvency risk; working capital and buybacks are the watch items.
Next: FCF conversion after the Q2 revenue step-up.
Per-share discipline
$500M added authorization
Repurchases help only if price paid, SBC, and share count preserve per-share value after the rerating.
Next: shares outstanding, remaining authorization, and SBC.
Guidance Tests
Guidance Path And Tests
Q2 is the cleanest near-term test because the guide requires both revenue follow-through and higher adjusted EBITDA margin.
Does Q2 revenue confirm recovery?
Confirm revenue within or above the $280M-$300M guide with broad demand commentary.
Warn if revenue misses guide or management points to customer timing, channel fill, or regional shifts.
Can margin keep stepping up?
Confirm adjusted EBITDA margin inside or above the 28%-31% guide and a stable gross-margin bridge.
Warn if tariffs, incentives, mix, or reinvestment absorb the cost-action benefit.
Is AI vision more than product language?
Confirm named customer wins, adoption metrics, or product revenue tied to new AI platforms.
Warn if In-Sight product commentary remains qualitative while the multiple keeps expanding.
Do buybacks create per-share value?
Confirm repurchases reduce share count or offset SBC without draining strategic flexibility.
Warn if repurchases at elevated prices are offset by awards, SBC, or rising shares outstanding.
Operating Evidence
Operating Evidence And KPIs
These tiles separate strong current operations from the open proof points that still matter after the rerating.
$994.4M
Recovered 9% from 2024 and reset the base for the 2026 operating leverage test.
22.3%
GAAP operating margin nearly doubled year over year in Q1 2026.
$621.9M cash and investments
No debt shifts the debate away from funding stress and toward valuation discipline.
6.62M shares
About 4.0% of shares outstanding as of June 15, 2026; not enough alone to explain the rerating.
+88.4% YTD
Local data through July 2, 2026 showed a sharp expectations reset.
One segment
End-market and product-line profitability remain under-specified.
Capital Ledger
Financial Quality And Capital Allocation
Financial quality is a strength. The report tests whether capital returns add per-share value at the new price.
Financial quality
Self-funding strength
2025 operating cash flow was $245.5M and company-reported free cash flow was $237M. Q1 2026 free cash flow was $42M, and the company had no financial debt at April 5, 2026.
Capital allocation
Buybacks need price discipline
The board added $500M to the repurchase authorization in February 2026. Q1 repurchases were $99M and dividends were $14M, so share count, SBC, and price paid should be monitored together.
Position Board
Competitive Position
Cognex has a real specialist edge, but the source set does not prove durable share gains or AI win rates.
What CGNX has
Focused machine-vision systems, sensors, software, ID products, and application-specific solutions.
Q1 2026 gross margin of 71.1% supports a differentiated product and mix profile.
No debt and large cash/investments support R&D, acquisitions, and capital returns.
What is not proven
Independent market-share, win-rate, and customer adoption evidence was not captured.
One customer was 15% of 2025 revenue, and timing can distort order and margin signals.
One-segment reporting limits product-line and end-market profitability attribution.
Street View
Ownership, Flows, Valuation, And Street View
Formal consensus and 13F holder context were not sourced in the lane, so the page keeps street view bounded to local tape, official filings, and flow diagnostics.
$67.80 close on July 2
Local market data showed CGNX up 88.4% year to date and 106.8% over one year, with 59.2% annualized volatility.
Dashboard use: the stock has already capitalized a durable recovery. Fallback chartAbout 41.5x EV/TTM adjusted EBITDA
Estimated EV was about $10.4B against roughly $250M of estimated TTM adjusted EBITDA.
Dashboard use: repeat execution matters more than balance-sheet quality alone. Metadata valuation trailRepurchase support, holder gap
Company repurchases are large and short interest is modest, but institutional holder context is missing.
Dashboard use: monitor share count and future holder data before reading flows as durable support. Knowledge laneSEC filings checked July 5
SEC-hosted filings confirm Q1 results, Q2 guide, 2025 business context, buyback authorization, and stock-plan amendment context.
Dashboard use: official filings anchor this page; no new analyst target data was added. SEC company page
Scenario Board
Scenario Assessment And Sensitivities
All paths start from stronger current operations. The difference is how much repeatability the next evidence proves.
Base
Cognex delivers against Q2 guidance, keeps elevated margins, converts cash, and shows enough demand breadth to sustain the operating recovery.
Upside
Q2 meets or beats guide, AI vision adoption becomes visible, end-market demand is broad, and margin strength looks structural rather than cyclical.
Downside
A guide miss, margin reversion, customer timing, weak AI evidence, poor buyback economics, or high-multiple technology derating resets expectations.
Trigger Stack
Monitoring Triggers
These are business evidence checks. Chart overlays remain in the shared overlay registry, outside this page.
Q2 results
Revenue versus $280M-$300M
Confirm revenue within or above guide with broad demand commentary.
Warn revenue below guide or demand explained by one-time customer timing.
Margin durability
Adjusted EBITDA margin versus 28%-31%
Confirm margin inside guide with gross margin still near Q1 levels.
Warn if gross margin reverts without a temporary explanation.
Growth quality
Broad orders versus concentration
Confirm logistics, factory automation, semiconductor, consumer electronics, and AI vision breadth.
Warn if one customer, China, or regional procurement reversal drives the result.
Per-share discipline
Buybacks versus SBC
Confirm repurchases create visible share-count and per-share value benefit.
Warn if awards, SBC, or high repurchase prices absorb the benefit.
Risk Punch Cards
Risks, Invalidations, And Quality Flags
The major risks are expectation risk, demand cyclicality, cost execution, AI competition, buyback discipline, and disclosure limits.
High expectations
Basis
CGNX rerated sharply and screens at a high EV/TTM adjusted EBITDA multiple.
Warning
Q2 guide miss, weak growth quality, or margin disappointment.
Reduce concern
Clean Q2 delivery with durable margin and broad demand evidence.
Customer cycles
Basis
Factory automation, logistics, consumer electronics, automotive, and China can be lumpy.
Warning
A major customer pause or regional procurement reversal weakens demand breadth.
Reduce concern
Recurring orders across multiple end markets.
Cost execution
Basis
Management targets $35M-$40M of additional annualized cost reductions by end-2026.
Warning
Tariffs, incentive compensation, mix, or reinvestment offset savings.
Reduce concern
Adjusted EBITDA margin follows the Q2 guide without starving product investment.
AI competition
Basis
AI-enabled vision is a credible option, but independent adoption evidence is missing.
Warning
Product launches do not turn into revenue, share, or win-rate proof.
Reduce concern
Named customer wins and visible revenue contribution.
Buyback and SBC
Basis
The repurchase authorization is large after a major price rerating.
Warning
SBC, awards, or high repurchase prices dilute per-share value.
Reduce concern
Share count falls or stays controlled while FCF remains strong.
Disclosure limits
Basis
One-segment reporting limits product, end-market, and geography attribution.
Warning
Valuation rises while granular proof remains unavailable.
Reduce concern
More disclosure on order breadth, customer mix, and AI product contribution.
Diagnostics
Diagnostics, Freshness, And Known Unknowns
Freshness is explicit because this page is a projection of the filed CGNX lane, with official links checked after generation.
Freshness
Stale-source warning retained
Filed lane
Market data
Official links
Latest CGNX source pair generated July 4, 2026.
Local daily market data in the lane runs through July 2, 2026.
SEC filing and release routes checked July 5, 2026.
Known unknowns
Evidence gaps
Transcript coverage
Adoption proof
Ownership and peers
Recent earnings-call transcripts were not directly available in the source set.
Independent market-share, win-rate, and AI vision deployment evidence remains missing.
Local 13F holder context and peer fundamental multiples were not fully sourced.
Source Bay
Links And Filings
Human-useful routes to the canonical lane, official filing sources, metadata, and the local chart host.
Canonical CGNX knowledge lane
Source-routed company research, proof burden, claim map, diagnostics, and known unknowns.
Report metadata JSON
Machine provenance, page sections, source trail, chart endpoints, and web freshness notes.
Fallback chart page
Universal security chart route for CGNX when a detailed page route is unavailable.
Q1 2026 Form 10-Q
Quarterly report for the period ended April 5, 2026.
Q1 2026 earnings release
SEC-hosted release with Q1 results, Q2 guidance, cash flow, no debt, and repurchases.
FY2025 Form 10-K
Annual report for the year ended December 31, 2025.
Q4 2025 earnings release
Source for Q1 guidance, cost-reduction target, and added repurchase authorization context.
2026 proxy statement
Director election, stock-plan amendment, auditor ratification, and say-on-pay context.
Local chart API: supplies the daily 9-month and weekly 5-year CGNX chart views.
Chart overlays: this HTML and JSON do not store page-specific overlay definitions. Shared overlay rules resolve CGNX levels separately.