Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Shares Gap Up – Here’s What Happened

Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $34.80, but opened at $36.77. Cognex shares last traded at $36.7490, with a volume of 1,074,531 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on CGNX shares. Truist Financial set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Cognex and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $56.00 price target (up previously from $55.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of Cognex from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Tuesday. DA Davidson set a $38.00 target price on Cognex and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $35.00 target price (down from $45.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.20.

Cognex Stock Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $40.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.88 and a beta of 1.53.

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

Cognex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 13th were paid a dividend of $0.085 per share. This is a boost from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 13th. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is 53.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cognex news, Director Robert Willett sold 6,704 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.51, for a total value of $331,915.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cognex

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CGNX. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings 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 valued at $223,594,000 after acquiring an additional 4,228,729 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 18,810.9% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,794,649 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $56,657,000 after purchasing an additional 1,785,159 shares during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Cognex by 32.0% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,082,319 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $181,436,000 after purchasing an additional 1,474,832 shares in the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Cognex in the second quarter worth about $45,723,000. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex in the second quarter worth about $38,889,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

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.