Robert Willett Sells 6,704 Shares of Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Stock

Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) Director Robert Willett sold 6,704 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.51, for a total transaction of $331,915.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink.

Cognex Price Performance

Cognex stock opened at $48.04 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.07 billion, a PE ratio of 67.66 and a beta of 1.50. Cognex Corporation has a 12-month low of $22.67 and a 12-month high of $49.76.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $249.09 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $246.70 million. Cognex had a net margin of 13.13% and a return on equity of 6.65%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.23 earnings per share. Cognex has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 0.240-0.290 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 14th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 14th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.07%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cognex

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Cognex by 148.5% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,075,772 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $223,594,000 after purchasing an additional 4,228,729 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Cognex by 32.0% in the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,082,319 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $181,436,000 after buying an additional 1,474,832 shares in the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN lifted its position in Cognex by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 4,768,716 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $151,264,000 after buying an additional 40,927 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in Cognex by 126.2% in the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 4,609,802 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $137,510,000 after buying an additional 2,571,457 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC lifted its position in Cognex by 17.9% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 2,724,331 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $86,416,000 after buying an additional 413,088 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CGNX. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Cognex from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Cognex in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 target price (up from $30.00) on shares of Cognex in a report on Monday, July 14th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Cognex from $36.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Truist Financial set a $45.00 target price on shares of Cognex and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.93.

Cognex Company Profile

Cognex Corporation provides machine vision products that capture and analyze visual information to automate manufacturing and distribution tasks worldwide. Its machine vision products are used to automate the manufacturing and tracking of discrete items, including mobile phones, electric vehicle batteries, and e-commerce packages by locating, identifying, inspecting, and measuring them during the manufacturing or distribution process.