Pallas Capital Advisors LLC Takes $1.02 Million Position in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 14,105 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,021,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its holdings in Cognex by 173,138.2% during the 4th quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 10,477,448 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $376,979,000 after purchasing an additional 10,471,400 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its stake in Cognex by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 7,013,184 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $252,360,000 after purchasing an additional 1,529,010 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 31.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,314,896 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $191,231,000 after buying an additional 1,258,629 shares during the period. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 0.9% during the second quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 4,768,716 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $151,264,000 after buying an additional 40,927 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 27.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,950,299 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $142,154,000 after buying an additional 842,783 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CGNX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. DA Davidson set a $65.00 price target on Cognex and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Seaport Research Partners set a $75.00 price objective on Cognex in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Stephens increased their target price on Cognex from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their target price on Cognex from $71.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $75.64.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of CGNX stock opened at $63.41 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.56 and a beta of 1.49. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $64.99 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $58.44. Cognex Corporation has a one year low of $34.60 and a one year high of $72.88.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $291.26 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $292.10 million. Cognex had a net margin of 16.05% and a return on equity of 13.50%. The company’s revenue was up 16.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.25 earnings per share. Cognex has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.640-1.680 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.500-0.540 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Cognex Corporation will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a dividend of $0.085 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $0.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 33.01%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, VP Darren Marc Long sold 20,252 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.34, for a total transaction of $1,343,517.68. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 3,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $264,696.60. The trade was a 83.54% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cognex 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.