Cognex Corporation $CGNX Shares Sold by Strs Ohio

Strs Ohio cut its holdings in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 52.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 84,119 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 91,893 shares during the period. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Cognex were worth $3,027,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 18,810.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,794,649 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $56,657,000 after purchasing an additional 1,785,159 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its stake in Cognex by 27.9% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 7,013,184 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $252,360,000 after purchasing an additional 1,529,010 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Cognex by 13.4% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,025,371 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $361,382,000 after buying an additional 949,599 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in Cognex by 43.9% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,024,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $137,003,000 after buying an additional 922,149 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Cognex by 10,861.7% in the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 782,776 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $35,460,000 after buying an additional 775,635 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CGNX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $52.00 to $50.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 20th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Cognex from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 11th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Cognex in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $59.50.

Cognex Price Performance

NASDAQ CGNX opened at $58.83 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.81 and a beta of 1.48. Cognex Corporation has a 1-year low of $27.61 and a 1-year high of $59.88. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $52.39 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.95.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.05. Cognex had a net margin of 11.51% and a return on equity of 9.02%. The firm had revenue of $252.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.92 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.16 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cognex Corporation will post 0.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Robert Willett sold 177,052 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total value of $10,338,066.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.58, for a total value of $230,657.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 16,222 shares in the company, valued at $901,618.76. This trade represents a 20.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 196,083 shares of company stock valued at $11,419,321. Company insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

About Cognex

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.