Analysts Set Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Target Price at $47.92

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) has earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation, six have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $47.92.

CGNX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Truist Financial dropped their price target on Cognex from $43.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on shares of Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st.

Cognex Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $36.99 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $38.53 and a 200-day moving average price of $40.82. The company has a market cap of $6.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.14 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex has a 12 month low of $34.79 and a 12 month high of $53.13.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This is an increase from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. Cognex’s payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

Insider Activity

In other Cognex news, 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 value of $1,040,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the firm’s 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. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cognex

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. Riverview Trust Co bought a new stake in Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 123.1% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 394 shares in the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cognex in the third quarter worth $36,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Cognex during the third quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new stake in Cognex in the 2nd quarter valued at $55,000. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.