Machine vision technology company Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) will be reporting earnings this Wednesday after market hours. Here’s what to look for.
Cognex beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 5.2% last quarter, reporting revenues of $276.9 million, up 18% year on year. It was a satisfactory quarter for the company, with a solid beat of analysts’ revenue estimates but a significant miss of analysts’ full-year EPS guidance estimates.
Is Cognex a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free for active Edge members.
This quarter, analysts are expecting Cognex’s revenue to grow 4.2% year on year to $239.4 million, slowing from the 16.8% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.22 per share.

Analysts covering the company have generally reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Cognex has a history of exceeding Wall Street’s expectations, beating revenue estimates every single time over the past two years by 2.8% on average.
Looking at Cognex’s peers in the tech hardware & electronics segment, some have already reported their Q4 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Napco delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 12.2%, beating analysts’ expectations by 0.7%, and OSI Systems reported revenues up 10.5%, topping estimates by 2.4%. Napco traded up 18.6% following the results while OSI Systems was down 7.3%.
Read our full analysis of Napco’s results here and OSI Systems’s results here.
The euphoria surrounding Trump’s November win lit a fire under major indices, but potential tariffs have caused the market to do a 180 in 2025. While some of the tech hardware & electronics stocks have shown solid performance in this choppy environment, the group has generally underperformed, with share prices down 2.8% on average over the last month. Cognex is up 10.9% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $48.05 (compared to the current share price of $43.69).
Here at StockStory, we certainly understand the potential of thematic investing. Diverse winners from Microsoft (MSFT) to Alphabet (GOOG), Coca-Cola (KO) to Monster Beverage (MNST) could all have been identified as promising growth stories with a megatrend driving the growth. So, in that spirit, we’ve identified a relatively under-the-radar profitable growth stock benefiting from the rise of AI, available to you FREE via this link.