Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Price Target Lowered to $42.00 at Truist Financial

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) had its target price reduced by Truist Financial from $43.00 to $42.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Truist Financial currently has a hold rating on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on CGNX. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on shares of Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Stephens raised shares of Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cognex presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.92.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of CGNX traded up $0.11 on Thursday, hitting $36.18. 234,914 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,257,960. The company has a market capitalization of $6.21 billion, a PE ratio of 69.58 and a beta of 1.39. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.79. Cognex has a one year low of $34.79 and a one year high of $53.13.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were issued 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 dividend yield of 0.88%. This is a boost from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 61.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,065,118.24. The trade was a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cognex

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Riverview Trust Co purchased a new position in Cognex during the third quarter worth about $25,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Cognex by 123.1% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 394 shares during the period. Truvestments Capital LLC purchased a new position in Cognex during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex during the third quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex during the second quarter valued at about $55,000. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.