Montanaro Asset Management Ltd Trims Stake in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Montanaro Asset Management Ltd lessened its stake in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 21.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 110,212 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 29,990 shares during the period. Montanaro Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Cognex were worth $3,496,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CGNX. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 402.2% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 919 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 736 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 155.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,062 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 646 shares during the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 231.9% in the 2nd quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,082 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 756 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 31.5% in the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,277 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 306 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 82.6% in the 1st quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,749 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 791 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CGNX has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Cognex in a research report on Monday, September 15th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $45.00 price target for the company. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $56.00 price target (up previously from $55.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Cognex from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target (up previously from $30.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $45.00 price target on Cognex in a research report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cognex presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, Director Robert Willett sold 6,704 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.51, for a total transaction of $331,915.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Sheila Marie Dipalma sold 2,002 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.00, for a total value of $90,090.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 8,582 shares in the company, valued at approximately $386,190. This represents a 18.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 10,706 shares of company stock valued at $512,065 in the last quarter. 1.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $41.39 on Monday. Cognex Corporation has a 52-week low of $22.67 and a 52-week high of $49.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.67 and a beta of 1.50. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $45.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.15.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $276.89 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $261.86 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 8.26% and a net margin of 11.33%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 18.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.20 earnings per share. Cognex has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.190-0.24 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.085 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 13th. This is a positive change from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 53.13%.

About Cognex

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.