Stephens Inc. AR Buys 4,251 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Stephens Inc. AR boosted its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 35.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,096 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,251 shares during the period. Stephens Inc. AR’s holdings in Cognex were worth $577,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 4,055 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $164,000 after acquiring an additional 349 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 123.1% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 25,685 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $921,000 after buying an additional 422 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 20.1% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 2,732 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $111,000 after buying an additional 457 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fiduciary Trust Co lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co now owns 5,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $220,000 after buying an additional 475 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on CGNX shares. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on shares of Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and set a $37.00 target price (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of 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 assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.92.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. The trade was a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cognex Stock Down 2.1 %

Cognex stock opened at $33.20 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $37.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $39.07. Cognex Co. has a twelve month low of $32.41 and a twelve month high of $53.13. The company has a market cap of $5.69 billion, a PE ratio of 63.85 and a beta of 1.40.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a return on equity of 5.28% and a net margin of 10.10%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.96%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.46%.

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.