Machine vision company Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ: CGNX) has had a difficult year, but somehow the stock is up nearly 17% at the time of writing. What's going on, and has the rally in the share price got ahead of itself in the last few months? Let's take a closer look.
The company started the year off after a difficult 2019, caused by a slowdown in spending from key end markets like consumer electronics and automotive -- end markets responsible for around half of Cognex's sales.
For reference, the company's machine vision systems help manufacturers monitor, control, and guide automated processes like automotive production and consumer electronics manufacturing. The weakness in consumer electronics in 2019 was largely due to a slowdown in capital spending on smartphones, and capital spending in automotive was negatively impacted by falling global automotive sales. As such, Cognex's revenue declined in 2019.
Source Fool.com