Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eleven brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $47.91.

CGNX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial cut Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $43.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Stephens raised Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cognex

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its position in shares of 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 period. State Street Corp lifted 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 purchasing an additional 42,882 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Cognex by 8.1% during the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,018,539 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $187,907,000 after buying an additional 301,916 shares in the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN boosted its stake in Cognex by 8.9% during the third quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 3,751,807 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $151,948,000 after buying an additional 305,913 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,608,028 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $146,157,000 after buying an additional 175,423 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cognex Trading Down 1.7 %

CGNX stock opened at $37.08 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $6.36 billion, a PE ratio of 71.31 and a beta of 1.39. Cognex has a 1 year low of $34.79 and a 1 year high of $53.13. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.02.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This is a positive change from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.86%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 61.54%.

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.