Geode Capital Management LLC Boosts Stock Position in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 27.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,950,299 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 842,783 shares during the quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $142,154,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 13.3% in the 3rd 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 period. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 0.9% in 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 buying an additional 76,212 shares during the period. IMC Chicago LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex in the 3rd quarter worth $5,761,000. DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 76,540 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 203.2% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 266,954 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $12,093,000 after buying an additional 178,911 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, VP Laura Ann Macdonald sold 98,122 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.80, for a total transaction of $6,554,549.60. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 5,258 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $351,234.40. This represents a 94.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Darren Marc Long sold 20,252 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.34, for a total value of $1,343,517.68. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 3,990 shares in the company, valued at $264,696.60. This represents a 83.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 224,847 shares of company stock valued at $14,975,098 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on CGNX shares. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cognex from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $65.00 to $75.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, May 7th. DA Davidson set a $62.00 target price on Cognex and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $68.00 target price (up from $60.00) on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, May 8th. One research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.43.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $64.67 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $58.17 and its 200 day moving average is $48.37. Cognex Corporation has a 1 year low of $29.22 and a 1 year high of $71.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 76.99 and a beta of 1.52.

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

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 21st were given a dividend of $0.085 per share. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 21st. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.48%.

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.