Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Price Target Cut to $35.00 by Analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) had its price target reduced by equities researchers at The Goldman Sachs Group from $39.00 to $35.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “sell” rating on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 5.93% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on CGNX. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup lowered their price target on Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. One research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.42.

Cognex Stock Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ CGNX traded down $0.16 on Tuesday, reaching $33.04. The company had a trading volume of 1,845,651 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,360,901. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $37.69 and its 200-day moving average is $38.88. The stock has a market cap of $5.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.54 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex has a 52 week low of $32.41 and a 52 week 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 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%. As a group, analysts forecast that Cognex will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of Cognex 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 transaction, the director now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Cognex by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $72,262,000 after acquiring an additional 87,790 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Cognex in the 3rd quarter worth about $790,000. Premier Fund Managers Ltd raised its position in shares of Cognex by 255.1% in the 3rd quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 24,854 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,001,000 after acquiring an additional 17,854 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Cognex by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,386,973 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $56,172,000 after acquiring an additional 77,146 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Cognex by 116.0% in the 3rd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 789,550 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $31,977,000 after acquiring an additional 423,950 shares in the last quarter. 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.