Nordea Investment Management AB Sells 45,328 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Nordea Investment Management AB decreased its holdings in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 2.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,250,319 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 45,328 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB’s holdings in Cognex were worth $81,349,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Cognex by 8.1% in the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,018,539 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $187,907,000 after acquiring an additional 301,916 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 5.2% in the third 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 purchasing an additional 87,790 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Cognex by 33.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,621,629 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $75,828,000 after purchasing an additional 409,502 shares during the period. Bridges Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Cognex during the 2nd quarter valued at $980,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 16.3% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,494,312 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $69,874,000 after buying an additional 209,630 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on Cognex from $43.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on shares of Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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 dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. This trade represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Stock Up 2.3 %

CGNX opened at $37.48 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $38.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.94. The company has a market cap of $6.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 72.08 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.79 and a 52-week high of $53.13.

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 issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. This is a boost from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.