Insider Selling: Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Insider Sells $4,349,734.65 in Stock

Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) insider Mark Fennell sold 64,873 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.05, for a total transaction of $4,349,734.65. Following the transaction, the insider owned 11,263 shares in the company, valued at approximately $755,184.15. This trade represents a 85.21% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $66.09 on Friday. Cognex Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $29.00 and a fifty-two week high of $71.90. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $53.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $45.84. The company has a market cap of $11.00 billion, a PE ratio of 78.68 and a beta of 1.48.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $268.44 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $245.98 million. Cognex had a net margin of 13.62% and a return on equity of 10.89%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.14 EPS. Cognex has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.400-0.440 EPS. Analysts expect that Cognex Corporation will post 1.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be given a $0.085 dividend. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 21st. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.48%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its stake in Cognex by 173,138.2% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 10,471,400 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Cognex during the 4th quarter worth approximately $73,103,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new position in Cognex during the 4th quarter worth approximately $68,388,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Cognex by 18,810.9% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,794,649 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $56,657,000 after acquiring an additional 1,785,159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its stake in Cognex by 27.9% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 7,013,184 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $252,360,000 after acquiring an additional 1,529,010 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Cognex from $67.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. DA Davidson set a $62.00 price objective on shares of Cognex and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $75.00 price objective (up from $64.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $69.36.

Cognex Company 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.