Barclays PLC Has $3.37 Million Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Barclays PLC decreased its holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 26.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 83,107 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 29,836 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $3,366,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CGNX. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Cognex by 8.1% in the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,018,539 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $187,907,000 after buying an additional 301,916 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 33.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,621,629 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $75,828,000 after acquiring an additional 409,502 shares during the period. Bridges Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Cognex in the second quarter valued at approximately $980,000. Legacy Advisors LLC increased its position in Cognex by 15.3% during the 2nd quarter. Legacy Advisors LLC now owns 17,625 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $824,000 after purchasing an additional 2,344 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in Cognex by 16.3% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,494,312 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $69,874,000 after purchasing an additional 209,630 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on CGNX shares. Stephens raised shares of Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Truist Financial cut their price target on shares of Cognex from $43.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald began coverage on Cognex in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $49.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,065,118.24. The trade was a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Stock Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ CGNX opened at $36.15 on Tuesday. Cognex Co. has a 52 week low of $34.79 and a 52 week high of $53.13. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $39.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.66. The company has a market cap of $6.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.52 and a beta of 1.39.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This is a positive change from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Cognex’s payout ratio is 61.54%.

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.