Federated Hermes Inc. Grows Position in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 131.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,619,607 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 918,413 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. owned 0.96% of Cognex worth $51,374,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings 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 worth $27,000 after buying an additional 736 shares during the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Cognex in the second quarter worth $29,000. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. purchased a new position in Cognex in the second quarter worth $29,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB increased its stake in Cognex by 231.9% in the second 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. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in Cognex by 31.5% during the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,277 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 306 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other news, Director Robert Willett sold 6,704 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CGNX. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on Cognex from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Cognex in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Truist Financial set a $45.00 price target on shares of Cognex and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Robert W. Baird set a $45.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $56.00 price objective (up previously from $55.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, October 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.53.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of CGNX stock opened at $38.42 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.03 and a beta of 1.53. Cognex Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $22.67 and a fifty-two week high of $49.76. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $41.80 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.96.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.06. Cognex had a net margin of 11.33% and a return on equity of 8.26%. The company had revenue of $264.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $261.86 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.20 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. Cognex has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.190-0.24 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 13th were given a $0.085 dividend. The ex-dividend date was 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 dividend yield of 0.9%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 53.13%.

Cognex 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.