Vanguard Group Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its stake in Cognex Corporation by 0.6% in Q1 2023, owning 18,360,109 shares worth approximately $547.68 million.
• Analysts have raised their price targets for Cognex, with estimates ranging from $32.00 to $58.00, reflecting a generally positive outlook despite mixed ratings.
• Cognex announced a quarterly dividend of $0.08 per share, with a dividend yield of 0.7%, further indicating a commitment to returning value to shareholders.

Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX - Free Report) by 0.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,360,109 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after selling 119,719 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 10.94% of Cognex worth $547,682,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 439.4% during the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 971 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 791 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Cognex by 155.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,062 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 646 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 105.5% during the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,280 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 657 shares in the last quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex in the 1st quarter worth about $38,000. Finally, Quarry LP purchased a new position in Cognex during the 4th quarter valued at about $53,000. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cognex Stock Up 0.6%

NASDAQ CGNX traded up $0.27 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $43.28. The company's stock had a trading volume of 321,751 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,101,304. The company has a market capitalization of $7.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.25 and a beta of 1.47. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $34.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $31.91. Cognex Corporation has a 1 year low of $22.67 and a 1 year high of $44.38.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.02. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.65% and a net margin of 13.13%. The business had revenue of $249.09 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $246.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.23 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 14th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 14th. Cognex's dividend payout ratio is presently 45.07%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CGNX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Melius raised shares of Cognex from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $60.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Cognex from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Cowen upgraded shares of Cognex from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. KeyCorp raised Cognex from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Cognex from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a "sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $42.31.

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.