Short Interest in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Rises By 6.4%

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,660,000 shares, a growth of 6.4% from the November 30th total of 3,440,000 shares. Approximately 2.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,130,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.2 days.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other Cognex news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 5.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $72,262,000 after acquiring an additional 87,790 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 10.0% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 33,657 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,363,000 after buying an additional 3,068 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in Cognex during the third quarter worth approximately $40,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Cognex in the 3rd quarter valued at $463,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at $790,000. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Cognex from $43.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on shares of Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.92.

Cognex Stock Performance

CGNX traded up $0.35 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $36.21. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 88,011 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,255,294. The company’s 50-day moving average is $38.94 and its 200-day moving average is $41.27. Cognex has a 52 week low of $34.79 and a 52 week high of $53.13. The firm has a market cap of $6.21 billion, a PE ratio of 69.64 and a beta of 1.39.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.08 dividend. This is an increase from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.88%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 61.54%.

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.