Cognex Reports Record Fourth Quarter and Full Year Results for 2018

▤ Summary

An exception was consumer electronics—our largest industry vertical—where a few large customers in OLED display and smartphone manufacturing scaled back their spending on machine vision after making substantial investments in 2017. Cognex also continued to expand its world-wide sales force and to make strategic IT and infrastructure investments which included the implementation of an SAP® Enterprise Resource Planning system. Cognex Corporation designs, develops, manufactures and markets a wide range of image-based products, all of which use artificial intelligence (AI) techniques that give them the human-like ability to make decisions on what they see. These forward-looking statements, which include statements regarding business and market trends, future financial performance, customer order rates and the timing of related revenue, future product mix, research and development activities, investments, strategic plans, dividends, stock repurchases, and tax matters, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Such risks and uncertainties include: (1) the loss of a large customer; (2) current and future conditions in the global economy, including the imposition of tariffs or export controls; (3) the reliance on revenue from the consumer electronics or automotive industries; (4) the inability to penetrate new markets; (5) the inability to achieve significant international revenue; (6) fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates and the use of derivative instruments; (7) information security breaches or business system disruptions; (8) the inability to attract and retain skilled employees; (9) the failure to effectively manage our growth; (10) the reliance upon key suppliers to manufacture and deliver critical components for our products; (11) the failure to effectively manage product transitions or accurately forecast customer demand; (12) the inability to design and manufacture high-quality products; (13) the technological obsolescence of current products and the inability to develop new products; (14) the failure to properly manage the distribution of products and services; (15) the inability to protect our proprietary technology and intellectual property; (16) our involvement in time-consuming and costly litigation; (16) the impact of competitive pressures; (17) the challenges in integrating and achieving expected results from acquired businesses; (18) potential impairment charges with respect to our investments or for acquired intangible assets or goodwill; (19) exposure to additional tax liabilities; and (20) the other risks detailed in Cognex reports filed with the SEC, including its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018.

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Cognex Corporation

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