Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Now Covered by Analysts at Citigroup

Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm issued a neutral rating and a $52.00 price target on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on CGNX. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on shares of Cognex from $58.00 to $55.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 3rd. Credit Suisse Group reduced their target price on shares of Cognex from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Cognex from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an underweight rating in a report on Friday, August 4th. CL King assumed coverage on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, June 23rd. They set a neutral rating for the company. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Cognex from $48.00 to $52.00 in a research note on Friday, May 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $51.00.

Cognex Stock Performance

CGNX opened at $47.86 on Wednesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $52.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $51.15. The firm has a market cap of $8.25 billion, a PE ratio of 48.34 and a beta of 1.54. Cognex has a twelve month low of $40.21 and a twelve month high of $59.51.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 3rd. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.32 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by $0.13. Cognex had a net margin of 19.31% and a return on equity of 10.32%. The business had revenue of $242.51 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $230.99 million. Equities analysts forecast that Cognex will post 0.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 1st. Investors of record on Friday, August 18th will be given a dividend of $0.07 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 17th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.59%. Cognex’s payout ratio is currently 28.28%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cognex

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 0.5% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 17,207,485 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $852,631,000 after purchasing an additional 87,789 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 1.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,895,177 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $658,855,000 after purchasing an additional 180,188 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 0.8% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,778,896 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $445,842,000 after purchasing an additional 45,764 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,294,480 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $249,423,000 after purchasing an additional 151,776 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 4,891,408 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $230,434,000 after purchasing an additional 526,196 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 89.86% of the company’s stock.

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.