Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) Receives $57.00 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have given a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $57.00.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird set a $55.00 price objective on Cognex in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Cognex from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. DA Davidson set a $55.00 price objective on Cognex and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, KeyCorp reaffirmed 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 Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other Cognex news, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 owned 16,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $901,618.76. This represents a 20.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert Willett sold 177,052 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total value of $10,338,066.28. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 196,083 shares of company stock valued at $11,419,321. 1.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Quent Capital LLC bought a new position in Cognex in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. REAP Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Cognex in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Cognex by 402.2% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 919 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 736 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC lifted its holdings in Cognex by 74.8% in the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 764 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 327 shares during the period. Finally, First Horizon Corp bought a new position in Cognex in the third quarter valued at about $38,000. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Price Performance

Cognex stock opened at $49.52 on Friday. Cognex has a one year low of $22.67 and a one year high of $59.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.27 billion, a PE ratio of 73.91 and a beta of 1.47. The business’s fifty day moving average is $49.51 and its 200 day moving average is $43.75.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $252.34 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $238.92 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.16 earnings per share. Cognex’s revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cognex will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

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

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.