Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, machine vision products specialist Cognex (Nasdaq: CGNX) has earned a respected four-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Cognex's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Cognex facts

Headquarters (founded) Natick, Mass. (1981)
Market Cap $1.8 billion
Industry Electronic equipment and instruments
Trailing-12-Month Revenue $321.9 million
Management CEO Robert Willett
CFO Richard Morin
Return on Equity (average, past 3 years) 8.8%
Cash/Debt $182.5 million / $0
Dividend Yield 0.9%
Competitors KLA-Tencor
Orbotech
Perceptron

Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.

On CAPS, 90% of the 314 members who have rated Cognex believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward.   

Earlier this week, one of those bulls, MajorBob04, helped our community understand the growth opportunity: "The Company designs, develops, manufactures, and markets machine vision systems which are used to automate a range of manufacturing processes where vision is required. Great technology that is feeding some of the largest and most efficient warehouses."

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