Strategic Global Advisors LLC Acquires New Holdings in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Strategic Global Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 52,095 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,773,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cognex in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,158,123,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in shares of Cognex by 173,138.2% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 10,477,448 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $376,979,000 after acquiring an additional 10,471,400 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex during the second quarter worth $161,425,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex during the fourth quarter worth $73,103,000. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in Cognex in the 4th quarter valued at $68,388,000. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. DA Davidson set a $65.00 price target on Cognex and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 8th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Cognex from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cognex from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $65.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Two investment 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 MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $75.64.

Cognex Price Performance

Cognex stock opened at $61.72 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $10.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.92 and a beta of 1.49. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $64.60 and a 200-day moving average of $59.30. Cognex Corporation has a one year low of $34.60 and a one year high of $72.88.

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

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 33.01%.

About Cognex

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.