Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Sunday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on CGNX. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on shares of Cognex from $76.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Zacks Research raised shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 16th. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $74.00 price objective (up from $72.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective (up from $75.00) on shares of Cognex in a report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Seaport Research Partners set a $75.00 target price on Cognex in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cognex presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.64.

Cognex Price Performance

Cognex stock opened at $59.15 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $60.10. Cognex has a 12 month low of $34.60 and a 12 month high of $72.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.95 billion, a PE ratio of 57.43 and a beta of 1.49.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.42 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $291.26 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $292.10 million. Cognex had a net margin of 16.05% and a return on equity of 13.50%. Cognex’s quarterly revenue was up 16.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.25 EPS. Cognex has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.640-1.680 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.500-0.540 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cognex will post 1.68 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th were issued a $0.085 dividend. This represents a $0.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 20th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.01%.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. IPG Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Cognex during the second quarter worth about $313,000. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 53.1% during the 2nd quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 15,916 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,153,000 after acquiring an additional 5,519 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 8,981 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $650,000 after acquiring an additional 535 shares during the period. GFG Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $201,000. Finally, IFP Advisors Inc boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 21.6% during the 2nd quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 956 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Company Profile

Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ: CGNX) develops machine vision technologies that help businesses automate inspection, identification, measurement and guidance tasks. Its systems enable manufacturing and logistics operations to analyze images and make decisions about products, components and packages.

The company’s product portfolio includes industrial cameras, vision sensors, barcode readers, three-dimensional vision systems and machine vision software. Cognex also offers artificial intelligence and deep-learning tools designed to address complex inspection and classification applications, along with engineering, implementation and support services.

Founded in 1981 by Robert J.