Peregrine Investment Management Inc. Acquires Shares of 224,270 Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Peregrine Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 224,270 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,042,000. Cognex makes up approximately 4.7% of Peregrine Investment Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new stake in Cognex in the third quarter valued at $25,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 123.1% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 394 shares in the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Cognex during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in Cognex in the third quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Clean Yield Group increased its holdings in Cognex by 1,686.7% in the fourth quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 1,072 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 1,012 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Citigroup reduced their target price on Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $37.00 price objective (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, 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 note on Friday. One 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.92.

Cognex Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of CGNX stock opened at $33.20 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.00. Cognex Co. has a fifty-two week low of $32.41 and a fifty-two week high of $53.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.85 and a beta of 1.40.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 EPS 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%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cognex Co. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.54%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Cognex

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.