Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. reduced its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 15.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 59,076 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 10,624 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $2,118,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Riverview Trust Co purchased a new stake in Cognex during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Cognex by 123.1% during the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 394 shares during the period. Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex in the third quarter valued at $36,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Cognex in the third quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd acquired a new position in Cognex during the 2nd quarter worth $55,000. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CGNX. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Cognex from $43.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on shares of Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.92.

Cognex Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX opened at $36.99 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $6.34 billion, a PE ratio of 71.14 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.79 and a 52-week high of $53.13. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $38.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.82.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This is a positive change from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.87%. 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.