Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Price Target Lowered to $38.00 at Robert W. Baird

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) had its target price decreased by Robert W. Baird from $42.00 to $38.00 in a report released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. Robert W. Baird currently has a neutral rating on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on CGNX. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Truist Financial reaffirmed 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, Citigroup cut their price objective on Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cognex presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.42.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $33.04 on Tuesday. Cognex has a 52 week low of $32.41 and a 52 week high of $53.13. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $37.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.67 billion, a PE ratio of 63.54 and a beta of 1.40.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 10.10% and a return on equity of 5.28%. Research analysts forecast that Cognex will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.97%. Cognex’s payout ratio is presently 61.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In related news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the business’s 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. The trade was a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 1.6% during the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 296,251 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 27.3% during the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 5,840,117 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $209,427,000 after purchasing an additional 1,253,996 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its stake in Cognex by 2.6% in the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 131,560 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Cognex by 0.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 42,882 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its stake 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 last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by 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.