Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Sells 20,850 Shares of Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. lowered its stake in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 4.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 486,046 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 20,850 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. owned approximately 0.29% of Cognex worth $17,488,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Cognex by 18,810.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,794,649 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $56,657,000 after buying an additional 1,785,159 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its holdings in Cognex by 27.9% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 7,013,184 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $252,360,000 after buying an additional 1,529,010 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Cognex by 43.9% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,024,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $137,003,000 after buying an additional 922,149 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Cognex by 10,861.7% during the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 782,776 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $35,460,000 after buying an additional 775,635 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Cognex by 342.2% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 974,865 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $44,162,000 after buying an additional 754,389 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on CGNX shares. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $75.00 price objective (up from $64.00) on shares of Cognex in a report on Monday. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, February 13th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $72.00 price objective on Cognex in a report on Friday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.86.

Cognex Price Performance

NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $63.65 on Thursday. Cognex Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $29.00 and a fifty-two week high of $71.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.59 billion, a PE ratio of 75.77 and a beta of 1.48. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $53.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $45.71.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $268.44 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $245.98 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 10.89% and a net margin of 13.62%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 24.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.14 EPS. Cognex has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.400-0.440 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Cognex Corporation will post 1.05 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be paid a $0.085 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. Cognex’s payout ratio is presently 40.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other Cognex news, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.58, for a total value of $230,657.00. Following the sale, the director owned 16,222 shares in the company, valued at approximately $901,618.76. The trade was a 20.37% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Mark Fennell sold 64,873 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.05, for a total value of $4,349,734.65. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 11,263 shares in the company, valued at $755,184.15. The trade was a 85.21% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 208,745 shares of company stock worth $13,862,237. Corporate insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

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.