The Goldman Sachs Group Cuts Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Price Target to $35.00

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) had its target price cut by The Goldman Sachs Group from $39.00 to $35.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a sell rating on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on CGNX. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on shares of Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and set a $37.00 target price (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price target on Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.42.

Cognex Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of CGNX stock opened at $33.40 on Tuesday. Cognex has a 12-month low of $32.41 and a 12-month high of $53.13. The company has a 50 day moving average of $37.43 and a 200-day moving average of $38.77. The firm has a market cap of $5.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.75 and a beta of 1.40.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 5.65%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Cognex will post 0.62 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.96%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cognex news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Cognex by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,479,828 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $662,687,000 after acquiring an additional 296,251 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 27.3% in the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 5,840,117 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $209,427,000 after purchasing an additional 1,253,996 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its position in shares of Cognex by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 5,230,271 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $211,303,000 after purchasing an additional 131,560 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,190,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $210,210,000 after buying an additional 42,882 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 3,820,394 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $136,999,000 after buying an additional 461,724 shares in the last quarter. 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.