Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Estimates By $0.01 EPS

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01), Zacks reports. Cognex had a net margin of 10.10% and a return on equity of 5.28%.

Cognex Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX traded down $0.37 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.25. The company had a trading volume of 1,730,245 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,123,295. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 75.48 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex has a twelve month low of $34.98 and a twelve month high of $53.13. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.29.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.82%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.54%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on shares of Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup reduced their target price on Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. The trade was a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were 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. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.