Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Sells 12,613 Shares of Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lowered its position in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 4.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 306,371 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 12,613 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. owned 0.18% of Cognex worth $11,023,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Cognex by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,101,583 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $292,224,000 after acquiring an additional 76,212 shares during the last quarter. IMC Chicago LLC purchased a new stake in Cognex during the third quarter valued at about $5,761,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Cognex by 43.9% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,024,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $137,003,000 after purchasing an additional 922,149 shares during the last quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC lifted its holdings in Cognex by 19.1% during the fourth quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 477,658 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $17,186,000 after purchasing an additional 76,540 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in Cognex by 203.2% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 266,954 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $12,093,000 after purchasing an additional 178,911 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on CGNX. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $63.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 13th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Cognex in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective (up from $50.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Truist Financial cut their target price on Cognex from $52.00 to $50.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Finally, DA Davidson set a $55.00 target price on Cognex and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.50.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.58, for a total value of $230,657.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 16,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $901,618.76. This trade represents a 20.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Laura Ann Macdonald sold 14,881 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.16, for a total value of $850,597.96. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 2,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $126,437.92. The trade was a 87.06% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 196,083 shares of company stock valued at $11,419,321. 1.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cognex Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $55.94 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $9.34 billion, a PE ratio of 83.49 and a beta of 1.47. Cognex Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $27.54 and a fifty-two week high of $59.88. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $52.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $44.85.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $252.34 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $238.92 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 9.02% and a net margin of 11.51%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.16 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Cognex Corporation will post 0.97 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 26th were paid a dividend of $0.085 per share. This represents a $0.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 26th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is 50.75%.

Cognex Company Profile

Cognex Corporation is a leading provider of machine vision systems, software, sensors and industrial barcode readers used to automate manufacturing, logistics and distribution processes. The company designs and develops vision-based products that help manufacturers and logistics operators inspect, identify and guide parts, assemblies and packaged goods in real time. Its solutions are applied in a broad range of industries, including automotive, electronics, semiconductor, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, and general manufacturing.

The company’s product portfolio includes stand-alone vision systems, vision sensors and deep learning-based software platforms that enable automated inspection, quality control and traceability.