19,031 Shares in Cognex Corporation $CGNX Acquired by AXQ Capital LP

AXQ Capital LP acquired a new stake in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 19,031 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $685,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CGNX. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Cognex by 13.3% during the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 318,984 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $14,450,000 after buying an additional 37,405 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Cognex by 124.5% during the fourth quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 98,451 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,542,000 after acquiring an additional 54,600 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in Cognex by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,101,583 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $292,224,000 after acquiring an additional 76,212 shares during the period. IMC Chicago LLC bought a new position in shares of Cognex in the 3rd quarter worth about $5,761,000. Finally, DAVENPORT & Co LLC raised its position in shares of Cognex by 19.1% in the 4th quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 477,658 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $17,186,000 after acquiring an additional 76,540 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on CGNX. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $75.00 target price (up from $64.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, May 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 price target (up from $70.00) on shares of Cognex in a report on Monday, May 11th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Cognex from $67.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.43.

Cognex Price Performance

NASDAQ CGNX opened at $66.06 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $57.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $48.17. The firm has a market cap of $10.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.64 and a beta of 1.52. Cognex Corporation has a 1 year low of $29.22 and a 1 year high of $71.90.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $268.44 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $245.98 million. Cognex had a net margin of 13.62% and a return on equity of 10.89%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.14 earnings per share. Cognex has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.400-0.440 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Cognex Corporation will post 1.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be given a $0.085 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. Cognex’s payout ratio is currently 40.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other Cognex news, VP Laura Ann Macdonald sold 98,122 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.80, for a total value of $6,554,549.60. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 5,258 shares in the company, valued at $351,234.40. The trade was a 94.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Mark Fennell sold 64,873 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.05, for a total value of $4,349,734.65. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 11,263 shares in the company, valued at $755,184.15. This represents a 85.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 224,847 shares of company stock worth $14,975,098 over the last three months. 1.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cognex Company Profile

Cognex Corporation is a leading provider of machine vision systems, software, sensors and industrial barcode readers used to automate manufacturing, logistics and distribution processes. The company designs and develops vision-based products that help manufacturers and logistics operators inspect, identify and guide parts, assemblies and packaged goods in real time. Its solutions are applied in a broad range of industries, including automotive, electronics, semiconductor, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, and general manufacturing.

The company’s product portfolio includes stand-alone vision systems, vision sensors and deep learning-based software platforms that enable automated inspection, quality control and traceability.