Fennell Mark 4

What Happened
Mark Fennell, Chief Legal Officer & Secretary of Cognex (CGNX), exercised multiple stock options on May 11, 2026 and immediately sold shares in open-market trades the same day. Aggregating the reported entries: he exercised about 60,010 shares by paying approximately $2.72 million in aggregate strike prices, and sold about 64,873 shares for total gross proceeds of approximately $4.35 million (net cash difference ≈ $1.63M before taxes/fees). The filing shows a mix of option exercises (transaction code M) and contemporaneous open-market sales (S), consistent with a cashless/sell-to-cover pattern.

Key Details

• Transaction date: May 11, 2026 (Form 4 filed May 12, 2026 — appears timely).
• Exercise activity (selected totals): ~60,010 shares exercised at strikes ranging roughly $33.04 to $56.44; total strike cost ≈ $2,720,416.
• Sales: ~64,873 shares sold at prices between $66.73 and $67.08; total proceeds ≈ $4,349,979.
• Net proceeds (sales minus exercise cost): approximately $1.63 million (approximate, before commissions/taxes).
• Prior/other awards recorded on the Form 4: multiple grants/awards from 2018–2026 totaling about 93,093 shares (subject to vesting schedules shown in footnotes F1–F6).
• Footnotes F1–F6 describe standard multi-year vesting schedules for the reported option awards (annual installments or multi-year cliffs as noted).
• Shares owned after the transactions: not disclosed in the data provided in this summary.
• Transaction codes: M = exercise/conversion of derivative; S = open-market sale; A = grant/award. No 10b5-1 or gift notation indicated in the provided entries.

Context

• For retail investors: this pattern (exercising options then selling shares the same day) is commonly a cashless exercise/sell-to-cover to realize gains or cover tax/strike costs; it is a routine insider liquidity event and not, by itself, a clear signal of long-term sentiment.
• The filing lists historic awards and vesting terms; these explain the source of exercisable options. No filing-timeliness issues were apparent from the provided dates.