Cognex announces increases in both revenue and profits

JULY 24--Cognex Corp. (Natick, MA; www.cognex.com) reported revenues for the second quarter, ended June 29, 2003, of $36,622,000, and net income of $3,306,000, or $0.08 per diluted share. These results compare favorably with both the comparable quarter in 2002 and with the prior quarter in 2003.

Revenues for the six months ended June 29, 2003, was $69,510,000, a 43% increase over the $48,451,000 reported for the same six-month period a year ago. And, Cognex reported net income of $5,099,000, or $0.12 per diluted share, for the first half of 2003, compared to a net loss of $7,232,000, or $0.16 per diluted share, for the comparable period in 2002.

"In the second quarter, both revenue and profits increased year-on-year and sequentially. I am also pleased to say that the order rate has trended upward for the past two quarters; bookings increased on a sequential basis by 13% in Q1 and by 10% in Q2," said Robert J. Shillman, Cognex chief executive officer and chairman. "This positive bookings trend, along with the fact that we have exceeded our internal targets for revenues and operating profits in each of the first two quarters of 2003, leads us to be somewhat more optimistic about the future than we were at the start of the year. And, irrespective of the rate at which our business recovers, we will continue to use our strong balance sheet to develop new products for new markets and to aggressively pursue strategic acquisitions."

Revenues for the second quarter of 2003 increased 37% over the comparable quarter in 2002 and 11% on a sequential basis. The year-on-year increase is primarily due to higher sales to OEM customers in Japan as well as end-user customers based outside of the United States and across a variety of industries. The sequential increase is primarily due to higher sales of Cognex's modular vision systems to end-user customers in a variety of industries and geographic regions as well as record revenue of SmartView, the company's surface inspection product.

Cognex's financial position remains very strong at June 29, 2003, with more than $280 million in cash and investments and no debt. Cash and investments increased nearly $4.4 million from the end of 2002 primarily as a result of the company generating positive cash flow from operations during the first half of 2003. The company paid out approximately $7.6 million in cash in the second quarter to acquire Siemens Dematic AG's wafer-identification business.