Truist Financial Reiterates “Hold” Rating for Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX)‘s stock had its “hold” rating restated by Truist Financial in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $37.00 target price on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, down from their prior target price of $43.00. Truist Financial’s price target indicates a potential upside of 11.45% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on CGNX. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup reduced their price target 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. Finally, Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on shares of Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.92.

Cognex Price Performance

NASDAQ CGNX opened at $33.20 on Friday. Cognex has a 12 month low of $32.41 and a 12 month high of $53.13. The company has a market capitalization of $5.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.85 and a beta of 1.40. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $37.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.00.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly 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 10.10% and a return on equity of 5.28%. On average, analysts anticipate that Cognex will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In related news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. The trade was a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

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