NATICK, Mass., April 21 -- Cognex Corp. has reported revenue of $27,485,000 for the first quarter ended April 4, 1999, compared to revenue of $40,056,000 for the first quarter of 1998. Net income for the first quarter of 1999 was $3,104,000, or $0.07 per diluted share, compared to $10,542,000, or $0.24 per diluted share, for the comparable period in 1998. Cognex designs and produces machine vision systems used in such areas as automated manufacturing and quality assurance.
The decrease in capital equipment spending by manufacturers in the semiconductor and electronics industries from the first quarter of 1998 to the first quarter of 1999 negatively impacted our year on year results for our first quarter of 1999, stated Dr. Robert J. Shillman, Cognex's President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman. However, sequentially from the fourth quarter of 1998 to the first quarter of 1999, our revenue increased by 10% and our net income increased by 42% as a result of an increase in our customers' order rate. In fact, I am very pleased to say that demand in the first quarter of 1999 by our end-user customers, who use Cognex systems to assist in the manufacture of their own products, was at the highest level ever experienced in the company's history.