Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Price Target Increased to $44.00 by Analysts at Robert W. Baird

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) had its price objective upped by investment analysts at Robert W. Baird from $40.00 to $44.00 in a research report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 1.48% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of Cognex from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com cut shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 19th. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $47.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group raised shares of Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cognex has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.55.

Cognex Stock Up 5.9 %

CGNX stock opened at $43.36 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $40.59 and a 200 day moving average of $38.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.44 billion, a PE ratio of 65.70 and a beta of 1.48. Cognex has a 52 week low of $34.28 and a 52 week high of $59.51.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $196.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.16 million. Cognex had a net margin of 13.52% and a return on equity of 6.86%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.27 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cognex will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 30.5% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 870,822 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $36,940,000 after buying an additional 203,684 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of 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 worth $113,722,000 after acquiring an additional 598,207 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its position in shares of Cognex by 153.6% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 134,516 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $5,706,000 after acquiring an additional 81,467 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama grew its position in shares of Cognex by 0.3% during the first quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 216,166 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $9,170,000 after acquiring an additional 566 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of Cognex by 38.4% during the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 64,855 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,751,000 after acquiring an additional 17,978 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.