Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Receives $48.58 Average PT from Analysts

Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the fourteen ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have assigned a hold recommendation, five have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $48.67.

Several analysts recently issued reports on CGNX shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Cognex from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group upgraded Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $42.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Stephens raised their price objective on Cognex from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cognex

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Cognex by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,334,064 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $723,524,000 after purchasing an additional 203,149 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cognex by 17.8% in the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,536,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $234,962,000 after purchasing an additional 837,487 shares during the last quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cognex by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC now owns 5,419,313 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $226,202,000 after purchasing an additional 262,003 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its position in Cognex by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,842,978 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $118,666,000 after acquiring an additional 31,483 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in Cognex by 29.0% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,663,900 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $113,722,000 after acquiring an additional 598,207 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cognex Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of CGNX opened at $44.49 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.96. Cognex has a 12 month low of $34.28 and a 12 month high of $59.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 76.71 and a beta of 1.48.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.04. Cognex had a net margin of 11.76% and a return on equity of 6.81%. The company had revenue of $196.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.16 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.27 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Cognex will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Cognex’s payout ratio is 51.72%.

Cognex Company Profile

Cognex Corporation provides machine vision products that capture and analyze visual information to automate manufacturing and distribution tasks worldwide. Its machine vision products are used to automate the manufacturing and tracking of discrete items, including mobile phones, electric vehicle batteries, and e-commerce packages by locating, identifying, inspecting, and measuring them during the manufacturing or distribution process.