Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Short Interest Down 15.4% in May

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,560,000 shares, a drop of 15.4% from the May 15th total of 5,390,000 shares. Currently, 2.7% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,030,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.4 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cognex

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Cognex by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,522,549 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $743,307,000 after acquiring an additional 188,485 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 17.8% during the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,536,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $234,962,000 after purchasing an additional 837,487 shares in the last quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC grew its position in Cognex by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC now owns 5,419,313 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $226,202,000 after buying an additional 262,003 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Cognex by 41.4% during the 1st quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 3,716,623 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $157,659,000 after buying an additional 1,088,095 shares during the period. Finally, Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its position in shares of Cognex by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,842,978 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $118,666,000 after buying an additional 31,483 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Cognex from $36.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, May 6th. Stephens lifted their target price on Cognex from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Cognex from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective (up from $47.00) on shares of Cognex in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.15.

Cognex Price Performance

NASDAQ:CGNX traded down $0.69 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $45.58. 1,125,885 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 954,140. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.59 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $43.83 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.94. Cognex has a twelve month low of $34.28 and a twelve month high of $59.51.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The company had revenue of $210.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $198.14 million. Cognex had a net margin of 11.76% and a return on equity of 6.81%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cognex will post 0.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were paid a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Cognex’s payout ratio is currently 51.72%.

Cognex Company Profile

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.