Brokerages Set Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) PT at $56.64

Shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $56.7692.

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on CGNX shares. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Cognex from $47.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, February 13th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Cognex in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. DA Davidson set a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price objective (up from $50.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 13th.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other Cognex news, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.58, for a total value of $230,657.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 16,222 shares in the company, valued at approximately $901,618.76. This trade represents a 20.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert Willett sold 177,052 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total value of $10,338,066.28. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 196,083 shares of company stock worth $11,419,321 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cognex

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,598,728 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $842,522,000 after acquiring an additional 374,999 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 173,138.2% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 10,477,448 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $376,979,000 after acquiring an additional 10,471,400 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,101,583 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $292,224,000 after acquiring an additional 76,212 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its holdings in Cognex by 27.9% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 7,013,184 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $252,360,000 after purchasing an additional 1,529,010 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Cognex by 31.0% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 5,314,896 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $191,231,000 after purchasing an additional 1,258,629 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $47.98 on Tuesday. Cognex has a 12 month low of $22.67 and a 12 month high of $59.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 71.61 and a beta of 1.46. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $46.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $43.19.

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

Cognex Announces Dividend

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

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.