Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of 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. Currently, 2.6% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,100,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.0 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CGNX. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $37.00 price target (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price target on shares of Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. One investment 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, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.92.

Insider Activity

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. This trade represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cognex

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. Riverview Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Cognex in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 123.1% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 394 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Cognex in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 50.0% in 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 period. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cognex in the 3rd quarter valued at about $36,000. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cognex Price Performance

NASDAQ:CGNX traded down $0.72 on Monday, hitting $33.20. 3,008,053 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,064,675. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $37.69 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.88. Cognex has a 52 week low of $32.41 and a 52 week high of $53.13. The company has a market cap of $5.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.85 and a beta of 1.40.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly 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, research analysts expect that Cognex will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.96%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.54%.

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.