Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Sets New 12-Month Low – Should You Sell?

Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Friday . The stock traded as low as $32.50 and last traded at $33.92, with a volume of 6422026 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $39.25.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Cognex Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $5.82 billion, a PE ratio of 65.23 and a beta of 1.40. The business has a fifty day moving average of $37.96 and a 200-day moving average of $39.22.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a net margin of 10.10% and a return on equity of 5.28%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.38 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 27th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.94%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 61.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $281,000 after purchasing an additional 262 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $201,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the last quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $1,784,000 after purchasing an additional 320 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.