Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) PT Raised to $48.00 at Needham & Company LLC

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) had its target price lifted by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC from $46.00 to $48.00 in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 9.61% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. UBS Group upgraded shares of Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. 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 objective on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Truist Financial began coverage on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $47.00 price objective for the company. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $48.58.

Cognex Stock Performance

Cognex stock opened at $43.79 on Friday. Cognex has a 1 year low of $34.28 and a 1 year high of $59.51. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $40.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.89. The company has a market cap of $7.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 75.50 and a beta of 1.48.

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

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total value of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Cognex by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,334,064 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $723,524,000 after purchasing an additional 203,149 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Cognex by 17.8% during the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,536,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $234,962,000 after purchasing an additional 837,487 shares during the last quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Cognex by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC now owns 5,419,313 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $226,202,000 after purchasing an additional 262,003 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its stake in Cognex by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,842,978 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $118,666,000 after purchasing an additional 31,483 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in Cognex by 29.0% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,663,900 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $113,722,000 after purchasing an additional 598,207 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

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.