Truist Financial Reaffirms Buy Rating for Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Truist Financial restated their buy rating on shares of Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) in a report issued on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $50.00 price objective on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $47.00.

CGNX has been the subject of several other research reports. Stephens raised their price objective on shares of Cognex from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted 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, May 3rd. UBS Group raised Cognex from a neutral rating to a buy rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. StockNews.com downgraded Cognex from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Monday, February 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Cognex from $36.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a sell rating in a research report on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $49.15.

Cognex Trading Up 3.2 %

Shares of CGNX opened at $45.90 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.88 billion, a PE ratio of 79.14 and a beta of 1.48. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $40.93 and its two-hundred day moving average is $39.02. Cognex has a twelve month low of $34.28 and a twelve month high of $59.51.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.81% and a net margin of 11.76%. The firm had revenue of $196.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.16 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. Cognex’s quarterly revenue was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Cognex will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.72%.

Insider Activity

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total value of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 94.4% during the 1st quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 589 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 286 shares during the period. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new position in Cognex during the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Rise Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1,239.7% in the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 777 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 303.1% during the 1st quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 770 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 579 shares during the period. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 71.1% during the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 804 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% 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.