What Happened?
Shares of machine vision technology company Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) jumped 33.5% in the morning session after the company reported strong fourth-quarter 2025 results that beat analyst expectations and provided an optimistic forecast for the upcoming quarter. Cognex's revenue for the quarter grew 9.9% year-over-year to $252.3 million, surpassing Wall Street's estimates. Adjusted earnings per share also came in strong, rising 35% from the same period in the previous year to $0.27, which was also well ahead of projections. Looking forward, the company offered a positive outlook, forecasting first-quarter 2026 revenue between $235 million and $255 million. The midpoint of this range was more than 7% above what analysts had anticipated, signaling accelerating demand for its machine vision systems.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Cognex’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 14 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Cognex and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 6 days ago when the stock gained 7.2% on the news that the major indices rebounded from a week of heavy selling. This rally was fueled by a recovery in technology stocks and a significant bounce in Bitcoin, which stabilized after losing over half its value from its October peak. Investor sentiment was also lifted by a surprising improvement in U.S. consumer sentiment and the realization that massive AI-related capital expenditure, such as Amazon's planned $200 billion, directly benefits chipmakers like Nvidia and Broadcom. These "pick-and-shovel" winners jumped as much as 7%, helping the S&P 500 edge back into positive territory for 2026. The highlight of the day was the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which surged and crossed the historic 50,000 threshold for the first time.
Cognex is up 57.3% since the beginning of the year, and at $58.10 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Cognex’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $618.16.
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