Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Short Interest Up 9.7% in January

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) saw a significant growth in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,410,000 shares, a growth of 9.7% from the January 15th total of 4,020,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,100,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.0 days. Approximately 2.6% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup lowered their price target on Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and set a $37.00 price target (down from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.92.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of CGNX stock traded down $0.72 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $33.20. The company had a trading volume of 3,008,053 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,064,675. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.85 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex has a 12 month low of $32.41 and a 12 month high of $53.13. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $37.80 and its 200 day moving average is $39.00.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a return on equity of 5.28% and a net margin of 10.10%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cognex will post 0.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th. Cognex’s payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

Insider Activity

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,065,118.24. The trade was a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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 business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CGNX. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Cognex by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,836 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $281,000 after buying an additional 262 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in Cognex by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,616 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $201,000 after buying an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Cognex by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 885 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 295 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Cognex by 30.8% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,346 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in Cognex by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 49,749 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,784,000 after buying an additional 320 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.