DA Davidson Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Stock

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) had its price objective raised by DA Davidson from $32.00 to $35.00 in a research report report published on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on CGNX. Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on Cognex from $36.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group increased their price target on Cognex from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Cognex from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $37.00 price objective (up from $30.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Melius upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.31.

Cognex Trading Up 2.4%

Shares of CGNX opened at $41.43 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $6.96 billion, a PE ratio of 58.35 and a beta of 1.47. Cognex has a 1 year low of $22.67 and a 1 year high of $44.17. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $32.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.76.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $249.09 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $246.70 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.65% and a net margin of 13.13%. Cognex’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.23 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Cognex will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 14th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 14th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is 45.07%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 148.5% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,075,772 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $223,594,000 after purchasing an additional 4,228,729 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Cognex by 32.0% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,082,319 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $181,436,000 after buying an additional 1,474,832 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in Cognex by 126.2% during the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 4,609,802 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $137,510,000 after buying an additional 2,571,457 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Cognex by 34.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,539,557 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $75,756,000 after buying an additional 647,955 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Cognex by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 2,256,640 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $80,923,000 after buying an additional 25,492 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Company Profile

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.