Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Position Cut by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 21.3% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,348,427 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 365,005 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned approximately 0.78% of Cognex worth $56,283,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec acquired a new position in shares of Cognex during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new position in Cognex during the third quarter worth about $30,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its holdings in Cognex by 71.1% during the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 804 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 334 shares during the period. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new stake in Cognex in the fourth quarter worth about $44,000. Finally, UniSuper Management Pty Ltd acquired a new stake in Cognex in the 2nd quarter valued at about $67,000. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total value of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on CGNX shares. UBS Group upgraded shares of Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Truist Financial began coverage on Cognex in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $47.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com lowered Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 19th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.70.

Cognex Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $38.69 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $40.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.90. The company has a market cap of $6.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.62 and a beta of 1.49. Cognex Co. has a twelve month low of $34.28 and a twelve month high of $59.51.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $196.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $189.16 million. Cognex had a net margin of 13.52% and a return on equity of 6.86%. Cognex’s quarterly revenue was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. Cognex’s payout ratio is presently 45.46%.

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.