Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Short Interest Up 9.7% in January

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,410,000 shares, a growth of 9.7% from the January 15th total of 4,020,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,100,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.0 days. Currently, 2.6% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In related news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $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. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cognex

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in 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 worth $662,687,000 after purchasing an additional 296,251 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 1,253,996 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised 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 acquiring an additional 131,560 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Cognex by 0.8% in the third 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 increased its position in Cognex by 13.7% in the fourth 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 buying an additional 461,724 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cognex Price Performance

CGNX opened at $33.20 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $5.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.85 and a beta of 1.40. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $37.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.88. Cognex has a 1 year low of $32.41 and a 1 year high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 5.28% and a net margin of 10.10%. Equities analysts expect that Cognex will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.96%. Cognex’s payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on CGNX shares. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and set a $37.00 price target (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.92.

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.