Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. cut its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 76.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 400,191 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,293,686 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.23% of Cognex worth $16,208,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 19.8% in the 2nd quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,819 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $85,000 after acquiring an additional 301 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 4,055 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $164,000 after purchasing an additional 349 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 123.1% during the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 394 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 20.1% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 2,732 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $111,000 after purchasing an additional 457 shares during the period. Finally, Fiduciary Trust Co grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co now owns 5,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $220,000 after purchasing an additional 475 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. The trade was a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CGNX shares. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Truist Financial lowered their price target on Cognex from $43.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Needham & Company LLC lowered 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 upgraded Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $45.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.92.

Cognex Stock Down 2.4 %

CGNX opened at $36.04 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $6.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.31 and a beta of 1.39. Cognex Co. has a 52 week low of $34.79 and a 52 week high of $53.13. The business’s 50 day moving average is $39.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.54.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a $0.08 dividend. This is an increase from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.54%.

Cognex Company Profile

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.