Legal & General Group Plc Takes Position in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,148,709 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $83,190,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.68% of Cognex as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Cognex during the second quarter valued at $26,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in Cognex in the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 635.4% during the 2nd quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 478 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 413 shares during the last quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC bought a new position in shares of Cognex during the 2nd quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cognex during the first quarter valued at about $36,000. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CGNX. DA Davidson set a $65.00 target price on Cognex and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cognex from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $65.00 to $75.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $74.00 price objective (up from $72.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings raised Cognex from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on Cognex from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.64.

Cognex Trading Up 2.0%

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX opened at $62.97 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $64.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.14 and a beta of 1.49. Cognex Corporation has a 12-month low of $34.60 and a 12-month high of $72.88.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 analysts’ expectations of $292.10 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 13.50% and a net margin of 16.05%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.25 earnings per share. 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 analysts predict that Cognex Corporation will post 1.68 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, August 20th will be given a $0.085 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $0.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.01%.

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.