Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $49.62.

Several analysts have recently weighed in on CGNX shares. HSBC raised shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $52.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Cognex from $45.00 to $39.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Cognex from $46.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Cognex from $55.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 2nd.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other Cognex news, Director Dianne M. Parrotte acquired 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $38.62 per share, for a total transaction of $77,240.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 11,340 shares in the company, valued at $437,950.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CGNX. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 986.2% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,619,007 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $68,679,000 after purchasing an additional 1,469,961 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Cognex during the 4th quarter valued at $58,641,000. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Cognex during the 1st quarter valued at $58,502,000. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its stake in Cognex by 32.8% during the 2nd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 5,098,711 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $237,812,000 after acquiring an additional 1,259,116 shares during the last quarter. Finally, William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Cognex by 41.4% during 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 acquiring an additional 1,088,095 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cognex Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $39.46 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $6.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.03 and a beta of 1.42. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.07. Cognex has a fifty-two week low of $34.28 and a fifty-two week high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $239.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $240.33 million. Cognex had a net margin of 9.29% and a return on equity of 4.97%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Cognex will post 0.46 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. Cognex’s 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.