Welch & Forbes LLC Has $11.90 Million Stock Position in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Welch & Forbes LLC reduced its position in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 2.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 330,638 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 8,479 shares during the quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC owned about 0.20% of Cognex worth $11,896,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Cognex by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,598,728 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $842,522,000 after buying an additional 374,999 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised 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 buying an additional 10,471,400 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in Cognex by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,101,583 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $292,224,000 after buying an additional 76,212 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised 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 buying an additional 1,529,010 shares during the period. Finally, Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN raised its stake in Cognex by 0.9% during 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 period. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen raised Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $75.00 price target (up from $64.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Zacks Research downgraded Cognex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Cognex in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, UBS Group set a $75.00 price target on Cognex in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $70.43.

Cognex Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $65.85 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $10.96 billion, a PE ratio of 78.39 and a beta of 1.48. Cognex Corporation has a 52 week low of $29.22 and a 52 week high of $71.90. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $56.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $47.52.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.34 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $268.44 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $245.98 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 10.89% and a net margin of 13.62%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 24.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.14 earnings per share. Cognex has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.400-0.440 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cognex Corporation will post 1.41 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Darren Marc Long sold 20,252 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Mark Fennell sold 64,873 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.05, for a total value of $4,349,734.65. Following the completion of the transaction, 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. Insiders sold a total of 224,847 shares of company stock valued at $14,975,098 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

About Cognex

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.