Short Interest in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Expands By 9.7%

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,410,000 shares, an increase of 9.7% from the January 15th total of 4,020,000 shares. Approximately 2.6% of the company's stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,100,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.0 days.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the 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 transaction, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. This trade represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company's stock.

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Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cognex

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,836 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $281,000 after purchasing an additional 262 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,616 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $201,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 50.0% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 885 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares during the period. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 30.8% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,346 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the period. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 49,749 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $1,784,000 after purchasing an additional 320 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Truist Financial reissued a "hold" rating and issued a $37.00 price target (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Cognex to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Stephens reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a research note 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 for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $46.42.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of CGNX traded down $0.24 on Thursday, reaching $33.40. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,930,896 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,411,271. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.75 and a beta of 1.40. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $37.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.77. Cognex has a 12-month low of $32.41 and a 12-month high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a return on equity of 5.65% and a net margin of 11.61%. Analysts expect that Cognex will post 0.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

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

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.