Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the eleven research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $47.91.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Stephens upgraded Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $45.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $43.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 5th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 10.0% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 33,657 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,363,000 after buying an additional 3,068 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex during the third quarter worth $40,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Cognex during the third quarter valued at $463,000. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in Cognex in the third quarter valued at about $790,000. Finally, TCW Group Inc. grew its stake in Cognex by 19.8% in the third quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 583,150 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $23,618,000 after purchasing an additional 96,330 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cognex Trading Down 1.7 %

CGNX stock opened at $37.08 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $39.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.02. The company has a market capitalization of $6.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.31 and a beta of 1.39. Cognex has a 52 week low of $34.79 and a 52 week high of $53.13.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.86%. This is a boost from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 61.54%.

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.