Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 18th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Cognex in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Cognex from $50.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Cognex in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $35.00 price objective (down from $45.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.21.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $54.40 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $9.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 81.20 and a beta of 1.53. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.66. Cognex has a 1-year low of $22.67 and a 1-year high of $59.88.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.05. Cognex had a return on equity of 9.02% and a net margin of 11.51%.The firm had revenue of $252.34 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $238.92 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.16 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Cognex will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In other news, Director Robert Willett sold 177,052 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total transaction of $10,338,066.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.58, for a total value of $230,657.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 16,222 shares in the company, valued at $901,618.76. This represents a 20.37% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 196,083 shares of company stock worth $11,419,321 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CGNX. Quent Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Cognex during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. REAP Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cognex in the third quarter worth $27,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its position in shares of Cognex by 74.8% during the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 764 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 327 shares during the period. First Horizon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex during the third quarter worth $38,000. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex in the second quarter valued at $29,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

About Cognex

Cognex Corporation is a leading provider of machine vision systems, software, sensors and industrial barcode readers used to automate manufacturing, logistics and distribution processes. The company designs and develops vision-based products that help manufacturers and logistics operators inspect, identify and guide parts, assemblies and packaged goods in real time. Its solutions are applied in a broad range of industries, including automotive, electronics, semiconductor, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, and general manufacturing.

The company’s product portfolio includes stand-alone vision systems, vision sensors and deep learning-based software platforms that enable automated inspection, quality control and traceability.