Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Price Target Raised to $45.00 at Stephens

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) had its target price hoisted by equities researchers at Stephens from $40.00 to $45.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock. Stephens’ price target points to a potential upside of 2.76% from the company’s current price.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on CGNX. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Cognex from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of Cognex from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group raised shares of Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, March 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $47.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $48.58.

Cognex Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of CGNX traded up $0.43 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $43.79. The stock had a trading volume of 1,411,680 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,470,606. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.89. Cognex has a one year low of $34.28 and a one year high of $59.51. The firm has a market cap of $7.52 billion, a PE ratio of 66.35 and a beta of 1.48.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $196.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $189.16 million. Cognex had a net margin of 13.52% and a return on equity of 6.86%. Cognex’s revenue was down 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cognex will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex in the fourth quarter valued at about $12,417,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in Cognex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,016,000. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its stake in Cognex by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 1,206,227 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $50,348,000 after purchasing an additional 99,647 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Cognex by 49.4% in the fourth quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 402,248 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $17,120,000 after purchasing an additional 132,991 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors L.P. raised its stake in Cognex by 26.3% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 227,641 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $9,661,000 after purchasing an additional 47,408 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

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.