Quest Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 8,307 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $336,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CGNX. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 986.2% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,619,007 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $68,679,000 after buying an additional 1,469,961 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Cognex in the 1st quarter worth approximately $58,502,000. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 32.8% in the 2nd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 5,098,711 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $237,812,000 after buying an additional 1,259,116 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 132.0% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,272,640 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $59,509,000 after buying an additional 723,976 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Railway Pension Investments Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Cognex in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,196,000. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cognex Stock Performance

NASDAQ CGNX opened at $41.53 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $39.97 and a 200-day moving average of $42.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 78.21 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex Co. has a 52 week low of $34.79 and a 52 week high of $53.13.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This is a boost from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 14th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.54%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CGNX. StockNews.com raised Cognex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Cognex from $45.00 to $39.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. DA Davidson dropped their price target on Cognex from $41.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Stephens raised Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $45.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cognex has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.91.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In other news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. This trade represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Dennis Fehr purchased 6,570 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was bought at an average price of $38.04 per share, for a total transaction of $249,922.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,570 shares in the company, valued at $249,922.80. The trade was a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.30% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.