Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" from Analysts

Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of "Hold" from the eleven analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $47.91.

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CGNX shares. Truist Financial lowered shares of Cognex from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and decreased their target price for the company from $46.00 to $43.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report 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.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of CGNX stock traded down $0.63 during trading on Friday, hitting $37.08. 858,497 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,256,113. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $39.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.00. Cognex has a twelve month low of $34.79 and a twelve month high of $53.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.31 and a beta of 1.39.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This is a positive change from Cognex's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. Cognex's payout ratio is 61.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company'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 completion of the sale, the director now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cognex

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in Cognex in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $567,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its position in Cognex by 13.1% during the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 13,677 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $640,000 after acquiring an additional 1,581 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its position in Cognex by 1.2% during the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,309,827 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $61,248,000 after acquiring an additional 15,871 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in Cognex by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 379,100 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $17,727,000 after purchasing an additional 29,118 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Cognex by 9.5% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 225,560 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $10,547,000 after purchasing an additional 19,619 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is currently 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.