Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Price Target Cut to $41.00 by Analysts at Needham & Company LLC

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) had its target price cut by Needham & Company LLC from $47.00 to $41.00 in a research report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on CGNX. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cognex has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.92.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $33.20 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $5.69 billion, a PE ratio of 63.85 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.07. Cognex has a 1 year low of $32.41 and a 1 year high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a net margin of 10.10% and a return on equity of 5.28%. On average, equities analysts predict that Cognex will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.46%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,065,118.24. This trade represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Cognex by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,479,828 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $662,687,000 after purchasing an additional 296,251 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Cognex by 27.3% during the fourth quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 5,840,117 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $209,427,000 after purchasing an additional 1,253,996 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its stake in Cognex by 2.6% during the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 5,230,271 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $211,303,000 after purchasing an additional 131,560 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Cognex by 0.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,190,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $210,210,000 after purchasing an additional 42,882 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its stake in Cognex by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 3,820,394 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $136,999,000 after purchasing an additional 461,724 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Cognex

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.