HighTower Advisors LLC Buys 1,461 Shares of Cognex Corporation $CGNX

HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 6.7% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 23,139 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,461 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $690,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cognex during the first quarter valued at approximately $12,064,000. Virtu Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 113.8% during the first quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 15,559 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $464,000 after acquiring an additional 8,280 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in Cognex by 17.6% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,223 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $66,000 after buying an additional 332 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in Cognex by 488,646.3% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 200,386 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $5,978,000 after buying an additional 200,345 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gagnon Securities LLC raised its stake in Cognex by 33.9% in the first quarter. Gagnon Securities LLC now owns 9,891 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $295,000 after buying an additional 2,504 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Trading Down 0.5%

NASDAQ CGNX opened at $44.03 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.28. Cognex Corporation has a 12-month low of $22.67 and a 12-month high of $45.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.01 and a beta of 1.47.

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

Cognex Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CGNX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Cognex from $36.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. KeyCorp raised shares of Cognex from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Melius raised shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $37.00 price objective (up previously from $30.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Cognex from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.31.

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.