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

Truist Financial restated their hold rating on shares of Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) in a research report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $37.00 price target on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, down from their previous price target of $43.00.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on shares of Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on shares of 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 issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cognex presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.92.

Cognex Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $33.20 on Friday. Cognex has a twelve month low of $32.41 and a twelve month high of $53.13. The stock has a market cap of $5.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.85 and a beta of 1.40. The company’s fifty day moving average is $37.80 and its 200 day moving average is $39.07.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share 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%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cognex will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. Cognex’s payout ratio is 52.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly 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. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CGNX. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cognex during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $79,797,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. boosted its holdings in Cognex by 122.7% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,834,755 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $114,808,000 after buying an additional 1,562,115 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Cognex in the 4th quarter worth approximately $46,299,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 1,253,996 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in Cognex by 903.9% in the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 731,232 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $26,222,000 after buying an additional 658,394 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is 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.