Cognex Corporation $CGNX Shares Bought by Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its holdings in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 173,138.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,477,448 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,471,400 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. owned about 0.06% of Cognex worth $376,979,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Quent Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. REAP Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Cognex in the third quarter worth $27,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its position in Cognex by 74.8% in the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 764 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 327 shares during the period. First Horizon Corp acquired a new stake in Cognex in the third quarter worth $38,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in 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 worth $27,000 after buying an additional 736 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Trending Headlines about Cognex

Here are the key news stories impacting Cognex this week:

• Positive Sentiment: KeyCorp raised its earnings estimates across multiple periods for Cognex, including a big increase to FY2026 EPS and a higher FY2027 forecast, while keeping an Overweight rating and $70 price target. That suggests Wall Street sees stronger profitability ahead. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Another Zacks item highlighted Cognex as a momentum name, reflecting improving market sentiment and technical strength around the stock. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Recent coverage also pointed to strong adoption of Cognex OneVision and the launch of the In-Sight 3900 embedded AI vision system, reinforcing the company’s push into AI-enabled industrial automation. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Cognex also announced that CFO Dennis Fehr will present at the TD Cowen Technology, Media & Telecom Conference later this month, which is more of a visibility event than a direct catalyst. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: A filing noted that Laura Ann Macdonald sold a large block of Cognex shares, which may weigh on sentiment slightly, though this is likely less important than the upbeat earnings and product news. Article Title

Analyst Ratings Changes

CGNX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on Cognex from $67.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Zacks Research cut Cognex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Stephens raised their target price on Cognex from $65.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 target price (up from $50.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $75.00 target price (up from $64.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.36.

Cognex Stock Down 2.8%

NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $64.26 on Friday. Cognex Corporation has a 1-year low of $29.00 and a 1-year high of $71.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 76.50 and a beta of 1.48. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $53.97 and a 200 day simple moving average of $45.97.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.09. Cognex had a return on equity of 10.89% and a net margin of 13.62%.The business had revenue of $268.44 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $245.98 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.14 EPS. Cognex’s revenue for the quarter was up 24.3% on a year-over-year basis. Cognex has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.400-0.440 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Cognex Corporation will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 21st will be paid a $0.085 dividend. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.48%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.58, for a total value of $230,657.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 16,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $901,618.76. This represents a 20.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Mark Fennell sold 64,873 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.05, for a total value of $4,349,734.65. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 11,263 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $755,184.15. This represents a 85.21% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 208,745 shares of company stock valued at $13,862,237. Corporate insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

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.