Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) saw a large decline in short interest in May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,560,000 shares, a decline of 15.4% from the May 15th total of 5,390,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,030,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.4 days. Approximately 2.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cognex

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CGNX. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Cognex by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,522,549 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $743,307,000 after purchasing an additional 188,485 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Cognex by 17.8% in 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 buying an additional 837,487 shares during the period. Brown Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 262,003 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Cognex by 41.4% in the 1st quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 3,716,623 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $157,659,000 after buying an additional 1,088,095 shares during the period. Finally, Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its stake in 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 worth $118,666,000 after acquiring an additional 31,483 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Cognex from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Cognex from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cognex presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $49.15.

Cognex Stock Down 1.5 %

CGNX traded down $0.69 during trading on Friday, reaching $45.58. The company had a trading volume of 1,125,885 shares, compared to its average volume of 954,140. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.94. The stock has a market cap of $7.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 78.59 and a beta of 1.45. Cognex has a 52 week low of $34.28 and a 52 week high of $59.51.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Cognex had a net margin of 11.76% and a return on equity of 6.81%. The firm had revenue of $210.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $198.14 million. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Cognex will post 0.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is 51.72%.

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.