Insider Selling: Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) EVP Sells $222,662.19 in Stock

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total value of $222,662.19. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 4,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $149,445.18. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Cognex Trading Down 1.4 %

NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $32.71 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.64. Cognex Co. has a 12 month low of $32.14 and a 12 month high of $53.13. The company has a market capitalization of $5.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.62 and a beta of 1.40.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 5.65%. Equities analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. Cognex’s payout ratio is 52.46%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. HSBC lowered Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, February 21st. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Cognex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.83.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in Cognex by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,038,345 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $73,095,000 after purchasing an additional 177,324 shares during the period. Forum Financial Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Cognex during the 4th quarter valued at about $210,000. Pinney & Scofield Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cognex in the 4th quarter valued at about $124,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex in the fourth quarter worth about $1,914,000. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in Cognex by 24.1% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 466,889 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $16,743,000 after acquiring an additional 90,640 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.