Sanctuary Advisors LLC Makes New $463,000 Investment in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 11,396 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $463,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Riverview Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of Cognex in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Cognex by 123.1% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 394 shares during the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Cognex during the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in Cognex during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $55,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC grew its position in shares of Cognex by 43.2% in the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,704 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 514 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cognex Trading Up 0.7 %

CGNX opened at $36.94 on Friday. Cognex Co. has a twelve month low of $34.79 and a twelve month high of $53.13. The stock has a market cap of $6.34 billion, a PE ratio of 71.04 and a beta of 1.39. The business’s 50 day moving average is $39.30 and its 200-day moving average is $41.58.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.87%. This is an increase from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. Cognex’s payout ratio is 61.54%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently issued reports on CGNX. Stephens raised Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $45.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on shares of Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $43.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.92.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In related news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

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.