DA Davidson Comments on Cognex Co.’s Q3 2024 Earnings (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) – Equities researchers at DA Davidson issued their Q3 2024 earnings estimates for Cognex in a research report issued on Tuesday, August 6th. DA Davidson analyst M. Summerville expects that the scientific and technical instruments company will post earnings of $0.11 per share for the quarter. DA Davidson has a “Neutral” rating and a $39.00 price objective on the stock. The consensus estimate for Cognex’s current full-year earnings is $0.46 per share. DA Davidson also issued estimates for Cognex’s FY2024 earnings at $0.45 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $0.79 EPS.

CGNX has been the subject of a number of other reports. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cognex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Stephens reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a report on Monday. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Cognex from $46.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Cognex from $45.00 to $39.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.62.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of CGNX stock opened at $38.75 on Wednesday. Cognex has a 1-year low of $34.28 and a 1-year high of $53.13. The company has a market cap of $6.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.81 and a beta of 1.42. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.98.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.03. Cognex had a return on equity of 4.97% and a net margin of 9.29%. The firm had revenue of $239.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $240.33 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. Cognex’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.72%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Dianne M. Parrotte purchased 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $38.62 per share, with a total value of $77,240.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 11,340 shares in the company, valued at approximately $437,950.80. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cognex

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Cognex by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 492,667 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $23,037,000 after acquiring an additional 11,251 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Cognex by 6.8% during the 2nd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 72,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,384,000 after purchasing an additional 4,635 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Cognex by 8.1% during the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,018,539 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $187,907,000 after purchasing an additional 301,916 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in Cognex by 7.5% in the 2nd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 563,252 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $26,338,000 after purchasing an additional 39,328 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Schweiz AG purchased a new position in shares of Cognex in the 2nd quarter valued at about $11,690,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

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.