Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Trims Position in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio reduced its position in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 54,057 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 675 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio’s holdings in Cognex were worth $1,715,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Cognex by 32.0% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,082,319 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $181,436,000 after purchasing an additional 1,474,832 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in Cognex by 126.2% during the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 4,609,802 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $137,510,000 after purchasing an additional 2,571,457 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Cognex by 34.3% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,539,557 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $75,756,000 after purchasing an additional 647,955 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in Cognex by 1.9% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,131,538 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $63,584,000 after purchasing an additional 38,857 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Cognex by 5.6% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,507,022 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $44,954,000 after purchasing an additional 79,266 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CGNX. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Cognex in a report on Saturday, September 27th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $37.00 target price (up from $30.00) on shares of Cognex in a report on Monday, July 14th. DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Cognex from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of Cognex in a report on Monday, September 15th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $45.00 target price for the company. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of Cognex from $36.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $43.07.

Cognex Stock Up 1.4%

NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $46.30 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $7.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.21 and a beta of 1.50. Cognex Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $22.67 and a fifty-two week high of $47.52. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $43.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.41.

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

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 14th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 14th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.07%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other news, EVP Sheila Marie Dipalma sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.03, for a total transaction of $90,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 6,582 shares in the company, valued at $296,387.46. This trade represents a 23.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cognex Profile

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.