Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Upgraded to Buy by HSBC

HSBC upgraded shares of Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $52.00 target price on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cognex from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Monday, February 19th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on shares of Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Cognex from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on Cognex from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Cognex has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $49.15.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of CGNX opened at $45.90 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.02. Cognex has a 52 week low of $34.28 and a 52 week high of $59.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 79.14 and a beta of 1.48.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.81% and a net margin of 11.76%. The firm had revenue of $196.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.16 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cognex will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 51.72%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total value of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Headlands Technologies LLC raised its position in shares of Cognex by 443.5% in the 1st quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 13,864 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $588,000 after acquiring an additional 11,313 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 10.8% in the 1st quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 35,296 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,497,000 after acquiring an additional 3,451 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in Cognex by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 209,304 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $8,879,000 after acquiring an additional 9,748 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1.3% during the first quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 150,657 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $6,391,000 after purchasing an additional 1,950 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC raised its stake in Cognex by 24.7% during the first quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 1,576,558 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $66,878,000 after buying an additional 312,098 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.