Stephens Inc. AR Lowers Stock Holdings in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Stephens Inc. AR lowered its holdings in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 15.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,752 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 3,526 shares during the quarter. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Cognex were worth $627,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CGNX. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 402.2% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 919 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 736 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 155.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,062 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 646 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 231.9% in the second quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,082 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 756 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 31.5% in the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,277 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 306 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 82.6% in the first quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 1,749 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 791 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Robert Willett sold 6,704 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.51, for a total value of $331,915.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Sheila Marie Dipalma sold 2,000 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.03, for a total value of $90,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 6,582 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $296,387.46. The trade was a 23.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,706 shares of company stock valued at $512,065 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Stock Up 0.6%

CGNX stock opened at $48.35 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $45.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.26. The stock has a market cap of $8.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.10 and a beta of 1.50. Cognex Corporation has a 52-week low of $22.67 and a 52-week high of $49.76.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its 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. The company had revenue of $249.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $246.70 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.65% and a net margin of 13.13%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.23 earnings per share. Cognex has set its Q3 2025 guidance at 0.240-0.290 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CGNX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. KeyCorp upgraded Cognex from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Melius upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Cognex from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Cognex from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price objective (up previously from $30.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.93.

Cognex Company 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.