Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Receives Equal Weight Rating from Stephens

Stephens reaffirmed their equal weight rating on shares of Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) in a research note released on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $45.00 target price on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on CGNX. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Cognex from $46.00 to $42.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a report on Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Cognex from $45.00 to $39.00 and set a sell rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Cognex from $55.00 to $46.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on shares of Cognex from $48.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $49.36.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of CGNX traded up $1.22 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $38.07. The company had a trading volume of 1,806,669 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,359,439. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $46.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.02. Cognex has a 52 week low of $34.28 and a 52 week high of $53.13. The company has a market capitalization of $6.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.64 and a beta of 1.42.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.03. Cognex had a net margin of 9.29% and a return on equity of 4.97%. The company had revenue of $239.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $240.33 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cognex will post 0.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.72%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 32.8% during the 2nd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 5,098,711 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $237,812,000 after purchasing an additional 1,259,116 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 48,102 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $2,249,000 after purchasing an additional 793 shares during the last quarter. Roubaix Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 18.1% during the 2nd quarter. Roubaix Capital LLC now owns 77,972 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,646,000 after purchasing an additional 11,973 shares during the last quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 18.6% during the 2nd quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 20,429 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $955,000 after purchasing an additional 3,204 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 10.0% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 71,368 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,337,000 after purchasing an additional 6,513 shares during the last quarter. 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.