14,522 Shares in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Acquired by Entropy Technologies LP

Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 14,522 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $521,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $72,262,000 after buying an additional 87,790 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $790,000. Premier Fund Managers Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 255.1% during the 3rd quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 24,854 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,001,000 after buying an additional 17,854 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,386,973 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $56,172,000 after buying an additional 77,146 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 116.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 789,550 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $31,977,000 after buying an additional 423,950 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Stock Performance

Cognex stock opened at $39.25 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $6.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 75.48 and a beta of 1.40. The business’s fifty day moving average is $37.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $39.22. Cognex Co. has a 52 week low of $34.98 and a 52 week high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a return on equity of 5.28% and a net margin of 10.10%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.82%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.54%.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other Cognex news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the firm’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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the firm’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 sale, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CGNX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Cognex from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. 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 note on Friday, November 1st. Citigroup cut their target price on Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.92.

Cognex 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.