Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC Has $5.69 Million Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 4.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 136,787 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 6,373 shares during the period. Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC owned approximately 0.08% of Cognex worth $5,692,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Cognex by 17.8% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,536,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $234,962,000 after acquiring an additional 837,487 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its holdings in Cognex by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,842,978 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $118,666,000 after acquiring an additional 31,483 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Cognex by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,082,608 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $88,386,000 after acquiring an additional 192,206 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Cognex by 156.5% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,065,693 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $86,862,000 after acquiring an additional 1,260,282 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Cognex by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,002,798 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $83,597,000 after acquiring an additional 52,672 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CGNX has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group raised Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Cognex in a report on Thursday, March 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $47.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com cut Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 19th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target 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 assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.70.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the company’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 transaction of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cognex Price Performance

CGNX stock traded up $0.82 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $40.61. 542,283 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 741,066. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $40.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.81. Cognex Co. has a 52 week low of $34.28 and a 52 week high of $59.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.97 billion, a PE ratio of 61.53 and a beta of 1.49.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.86% and a net margin of 13.52%. The company had revenue of $196.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.16 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.46%.

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.