HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 1,730 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

HighTower Advisors LLC cut its stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 7.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 21,678 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,730 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $777,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 5.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $72,262,000 after purchasing an additional 87,790 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Cognex by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,427,756 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $51,199,000 after acquiring an additional 42,292 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cognex in the third quarter worth approximately $790,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cognex by 75.1% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,870 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $102,000 after buying an additional 1,231 shares during the period. Finally, TCW Group Inc. raised its stake in Cognex by 19.8% during the third quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 583,150 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $23,618,000 after buying an additional 96,330 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on CGNX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $37.00 price objective (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Cognex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Citigroup reduced their target price on Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.83.

Cognex Trading Down 2.4 %

NASDAQ CGNX opened at $30.01 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.51. Cognex Co. has a 12 month low of $29.58 and a 12 month high of $53.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.20 and a beta of 1.43.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a return on equity of 5.65% and a net margin of 11.61%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 27th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.07%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.46%.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total transaction of $222,662.19. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 4,566 shares in the company, valued at $149,445.18. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.