Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 296,251 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 18,479,828 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 296,251 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.11% of Cognex worth $662,687,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 394 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Cognex during the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Cognex by 50.0% in the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 885 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares during the period. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Cognex by 129.9% in the 4th quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,007 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 569 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clean Yield Group increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1,686.7% during the 4th quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 1,072 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 1,012 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total transaction of $222,662.19. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $149,445.18. This 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 accessible through this link. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cognex Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of CGNX stock opened at $30.01 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.20 and a beta of 1.43. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $29.58 and a 12-month high of $53.13. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $34.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.50.

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

Cognex Dividend Announcement

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CGNX has been the subject of several research reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. HSBC lowered Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, February 21st. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.83.

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.