Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have assigned a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $57.00.

Several brokerages have commented on CGNX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Cognex from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $55.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Cognex in a research report on Monday, December 29th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $70.00 price target (up from $50.00) on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cognex from $50.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Cognex from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 18th.

Cognex Stock Performance

Cognex stock opened at $49.17 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.30 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.73. Cognex has a 1-year low of $22.67 and a 1-year high of $59.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.39 and a beta of 1.47.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.92 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.16 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cognex will post 0.61 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 26th were given a dividend of $0.085 per share. This represents a $0.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 26th. Cognex’s payout ratio is 50.75%.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In related news, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.58, for a total transaction of $230,657.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 16,222 shares in the company, valued at $901,618.76. The trade was a 20.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert Willett sold 177,052 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total value of $10,338,066.28. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 196,083 shares of company stock valued at $11,419,321. 1.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in Cognex by 13.2% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 200,351 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $5,976,000 after purchasing an additional 23,326 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in Cognex during the first quarter valued at approximately $291,000. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Cognex by 24.1% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 47,444 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,415,000 after buying an additional 9,223 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 402.2% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 919 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 736 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 7.5% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 13,208 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $419,000 after buying an additional 920 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Company Profile

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.