Needham Investment Management LLC Sells 42,000 Shares of Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Needham Investment Management LLC trimmed its holdings in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 21.3% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 155,500 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 42,000 shares during the quarter. Needham Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $4,639,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Covestor Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 17.6% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,223 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 332 shares in the last quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 16.0% during the fourth quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 3,267 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $117,000 after purchasing an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 17.0% during the first quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 3,357 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $101,000 after purchasing an additional 487 shares in the last quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 7.4% during the first quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,698 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $230,000 after purchasing an additional 532 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 155.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,062 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 646 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cognex Stock Up 1.5%

CGNX opened at $44.94 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $7.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.30 and a beta of 1.50. Cognex Corporation has a twelve month low of $22.67 and a twelve month high of $45.23. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $38.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $32.65.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $249.09 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $246.70 million. Cognex had a net margin of 13.13% and a return on equity of 6.65%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.23 earnings per share. Cognex has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 0.240-0.290 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 14th were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 14th. Cognex’s payout ratio is presently 45.07%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target (up from $30.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Cognex from $36.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp raised shares of Cognex from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $50.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Cognex from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. Finally, DA Davidson raised their price target on shares of Cognex from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.31.

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.