We recently published a list of Jim Cramer’s 9 Failed Predictions From 12 Months Ago. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discussed 12 months ago.

During a recent episode of Mad Money, which aired on Friday, the 9th of May, Jim Cramer urged investors to stop chasing hot stocks blindly and instead start with the most fundamental question of all: what are you investing for?

“Far too often people will invest in the stock market with the simple poorly defined goal of making money. That’s right. Poorly defined goal. Yeah, we all want to make money. I want it. You want it. But how quickly do you want that return? What are you willing to risk in order to get there? How much can you even afford to risk in the first place?”

READ ALSO: Jim Cramer Nailed These 12 Stock Predictions and 13 Stock Predictions That Jim Cramer Got Completely Wrong.

He stressed the importance of matching your stock choices to your actual financial goals such as retirement, home purchase, and college tuition, rather than treating all money as interchangeable. This, he explained, is the cornerstone of suitability:

“You simply can’t know which stocks you should buy if you haven’t taken the time to really consider what your objectives are. That’s the foundation of good investing judgment.”

Cramer closed the segment by reminding viewers that even though the U.S. remains one of the best markets for long-term growth, discipline must come before stock picking:

“America remains a growth country… But please get to know yourself before you jump down the rabbit hole of getting to know individual companies.”

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 9 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during Mad Money episodes that aired on the 7th and 8th of May 2024. We then calculated their performance for the past 12 months, until May 7th, 2025, market close. We have also included the hedge fund sentiment for the stocks, which we sourced from Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 database of over 900 hedge funds. The stocks are listed in the order that Cramer mentioned them.

Please note that this article mentions Jim Cramer’s previous opinions and may not account for any changes to his opinions regarding the stocks that are mentioned. It is primarily an examination of how his previously provided opinions have panned out.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

Story Continues

Was Jim Cramer Right About Cognex Corporation (CGNX)?

A worker utilizing a vision sensor to verify discrete items.

Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 37

Cramer responded to a question about Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX), a niche industrial vision systems company. He offered a mild endorsement, citing its profitability and performance at the time.

“You know—niche company, niche master. Cognex. Machine vision. I kind of like it. Makes money, you know what I mean? Look, is it going to catch on fire? It’s actually kind of caught on fire. But I like it.”

Cramer’s optimism didn’t age well as the stock has plunged 38.10% since his take.

Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) designs, develops, and manufactures machine vision systems, sensors, and industrial barcode readers used in automated manufacturing.

Overall, CGNX ranks 7th on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discussed 12 months ago. While we acknowledge the potential of CGNX as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than CGNX but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

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