Rice Hall James & Associates LLC Buys Shares of 67,582 Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Rice Hall James & Associates LLC purchased a new stake in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 67,582 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,894,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CGNX. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in Cognex by 173,138.2% in the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 10,477,448 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $376,979,000 after purchasing an additional 10,471,400 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 27.9% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 7,013,184 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $252,360,000 after buying an additional 1,529,010 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Cognex by 31.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,314,896 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $191,231,000 after buying an additional 1,258,629 shares during the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN grew its position in shares of Cognex by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 4,768,716 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $151,264,000 after buying an additional 40,927 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 27.1% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,950,299 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $142,154,000 after acquiring an additional 842,783 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cognex Stock Up 1.5%

CGNX stock opened at $66.60 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $64.95 and a 200 day moving average of $58.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.20 billion, a PE ratio of 64.66 and a beta of 1.49. Cognex Corporation has a 52 week low of $34.60 and a 52 week high of $72.88.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $291.26 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $292.10 million. Cognex had a net margin of 16.05% and a return on equity of 13.50%. Cognex’s revenue was up 16.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.25 EPS. Cognex has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.640-1.680 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.500-0.540 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cognex Corporation will post 1.68 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.085 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $0.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 33.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Cognex from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. HSBC downgraded Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price objective on Cognex from $76.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. UBS Group set a $75.00 price objective on Cognex in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Stephens boosted their target price on Cognex from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $75.64.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Darren Marc Long sold 20,252 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.34, for a total value of $1,343,517.68. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 3,990 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $264,696.60. This represents a 83.54% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cognex Profile

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.