Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Short Interest Update

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) saw a significant drop in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 3,980,000 shares, a drop of 5.7% from the September 15th total of 4,220,000 shares. Currently, 2.3% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,190,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Cognex from $55.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. DA Davidson lowered their target price on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Vertical Research assumed coverage on shares of Cognex in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $58.00 price target for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Cognex from $45.00 to $39.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised Cognex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cognex presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $50.00.

Cognex Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX traded up $0.83 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $40.52. The company had a trading volume of 195,594 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,272,403. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $39.19 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $43.04. The stock has a market cap of $6.96 billion, a PE ratio of 68.43 and a beta of 1.41. Cognex has a 1-year low of $34.28 and a 1-year high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $239.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $240.33 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 4.97% and a net margin of 9.29%. Cognex’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Cognex will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. Cognex’s payout ratio is 51.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other Cognex news, Director Dianne M. Parrotte bought 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $38.62 per share, with a total value of $77,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 11,340 shares in the company, valued at $437,950.80. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Cognex news, CFO Dennis Fehr bought 6,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $38.04 per share, with a total value of $249,922.80. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 6,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $249,922.80. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Dianne M. Parrotte bought 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $38.62 per share, for a total transaction of $77,240.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 11,340 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $437,950.80. The trade was a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Cognex by 38.4% in the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 64,855 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,751,000 after purchasing an additional 17,978 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,522,549 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $743,307,000 after acquiring an additional 188,485 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 153.6% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 134,516 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $5,706,000 after acquiring an additional 81,467 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Cognex by 30.5% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 870,822 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $36,940,000 after purchasing an additional 203,684 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Cognex by 29.0% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,663,900 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $113,722,000 after purchasing an additional 598,207 shares during the last quarter. 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.