Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Announces Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.01 EPS

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) issued its earnings results on Wednesday. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01), Zacks reports. Cognex had a return on equity of 5.28% and a net margin of 10.10%. Cognex updated its Q1 2025 guidance to EPS.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX traded down $0.37 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.25. 1,730,329 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,123,378. Cognex has a 1 year low of $34.98 and a 1 year high of $53.13. The company has a market cap of $6.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 75.48 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $37.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.22.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CGNX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial upped their price target on Cognex from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on shares of Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.92.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.