Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Reaches New 12-Month Low – Here’s What Happened

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)’s share price reached a new 52-week low during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $32.35 and last traded at $32.67, with a volume of 398260 shares. The stock had previously closed at $33.40.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on CGNX shares. UBS Group lowered their target price on Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. HSBC cut shares of Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.83.

Cognex Stock Down 2.7 %

The business has a fifty day moving average of $37.43 and a 200 day moving average of $38.77. The firm has a market cap of $5.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.28 and a beta of 1.40.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 5.65%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is 52.46%.

Insider Activity

In other Cognex news, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cognex

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CGNX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Cognex by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $72,262,000 after purchasing an additional 87,790 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cognex during the third quarter worth $790,000. Premier Fund Managers Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 255.1% during the third quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 24,854 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,001,000 after acquiring an additional 17,854 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in Cognex by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,386,973 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $56,172,000 after acquiring an additional 77,146 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Cognex by 116.0% in the 3rd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 789,550 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $31,977,000 after purchasing an additional 423,950 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.