Capital International Investors Acquires 61,260 Shares of Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Capital International Investors increased its holdings in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 5.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,280,272 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 61,260 shares during the period. Capital International Investors’ holdings in Cognex were worth $46,064,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 419,164 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $15,082,000 after acquiring an additional 8,272 shares in the last quarter. Pinebridge Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Cognex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,295,000. Prudential PLC grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 100.5% in the fourth quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 13,611 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $490,000 after acquiring an additional 6,822 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 265,268 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $9,544,000 after acquiring an additional 8,980 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 38.1% in the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 11,811 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $425,000 after acquiring an additional 3,256 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CGNX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group set a $75.00 target price on Cognex in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Seaport Research Partners set a $75.00 price objective on Cognex in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cognex from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $65.00 to $75.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Robert W. Baird set a $72.00 price objective on Cognex in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, February 12th. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.43.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, insider Mark Fennell sold 64,873 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.05, for a total transaction of $4,349,734.65. Following the sale, the insider owned 11,263 shares in the company, valued at $755,184.15. This represents a 85.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, VP Darren Marc Long sold 20,252 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.34, for a total value of $1,343,517.68. Following the sale, the vice president owned 3,990 shares in the company, valued at approximately $264,696.60. This represents a 83.54% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 224,847 shares of company stock worth $14,975,098 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX opened at $61.32 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $48.91. Cognex Corporation has a 1-year low of $29.22 and a 1-year high of $71.90. The firm has a market cap of $10.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.00 and a beta of 1.52.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.34 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $268.44 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $245.98 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.14 earnings per share. Cognex’s 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. Analysts forecast that Cognex Corporation will post 1.41 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 21st were given a dividend of $0.085 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.48%.

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.