Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Short Interest Up 9.7% in January

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,410,000 shares, an increase of 9.7% from the January 15th total of 4,020,000 shares. Approximately 2.6% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 1,100,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.0 days.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of Cognex stock traded down $0.72 on Friday, reaching $33.20. 3,008,053 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,064,675. The company’s 50-day moving average is $37.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $39.00. The firm has a market cap of $5.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.85 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex has a 1-year low of $32.41 and a 1-year high of $53.13.

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 for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a return on equity of 5.28% and a net margin of 10.10%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cognex will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cognex

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. Creative Planning grew its holdings in Cognex by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 21,919 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $888,000 after buying an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its holdings in Cognex by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 19,929 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $807,000 after buying an additional 1,110 shares in the last quarter. Riverview Trust Co bought a new position in Cognex in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in Cognex by 719.2% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,171 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $88,000 after buying an additional 1,906 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Slow Capital Inc. grew its holdings in Cognex by 13.2% in the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 80,593 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,264,000 after buying an additional 9,415 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CGNX. Citigroup decreased their target price on Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $37.00 target price (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC decreased their target price on Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald raised 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 equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.92.

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.