Cognex Corporation $CGNX Shares Bought by American Century Companies Inc.

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 6.8% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 220,476 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,988 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 0.13% of Cognex worth $6,993,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CGNX. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 736 shares during the period. Penserra Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Cognex during the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cognex in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB lifted its stake in Cognex by 231.9% during 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 purchasing an additional 756 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Cognex by 31.5% during the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,277 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 306 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $38.42 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $6.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.03 and a beta of 1.53. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $41.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.83. Cognex Corporation has a 52-week low of $22.67 and a 52-week high of $49.76.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.06. Cognex had a net margin of 11.33% and a return on equity of 8.26%. The firm had revenue of $264.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $261.86 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.20 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.0% on a year-over-year basis. Cognex has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.190-0.24 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 13th were paid a $0.085 dividend. This represents a $0.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 13th. This is a positive change from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 53.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CGNX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Cognex from $36.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, October 31st. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Cognex from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, DA Davidson set a $38.00 price target on shares of Cognex and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cognex has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.53.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other Cognex news, Director Robert Willett sold 6,704 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.51, for a total transaction of $331,915.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Sheila Marie Dipalma sold 2,000 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.03, for a total transaction of $90,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 6,582 shares in the company, valued at approximately $296,387.46. This represents a 23.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by 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.