Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Price Target Increased to $44.00 by Analysts at Robert W. Baird

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) had its price objective lifted by Robert W. Baird from $40.00 to $44.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently commented on CGNX. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Cognex from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. They set a buy rating and a $47.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com downgraded Cognex from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Monday, February 19th. UBS Group raised Cognex from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cognex has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $48.67.

Cognex Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of CGNX stock opened at $44.49 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 76.71 and a beta of 1.48. Cognex has a 1-year low of $34.28 and a 1-year high of $59.51. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.96.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $196.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $189.16 million. Cognex had a net margin of 11.76% and a return on equity of 6.81%. Cognex’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.27 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Cognex will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were 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 is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cognex

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Cognex by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,334,064 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $723,524,000 after buying an additional 203,149 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Cognex by 17.8% during the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 837,487 shares during the period. Brown Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cognex by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC now owns 5,419,313 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $226,202,000 after acquiring an additional 262,003 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 1.1% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 31,483 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 29.0% in the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 598,207 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

About Cognex

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.