Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Purchases 294 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 11.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,760 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 294 shares during the quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Cognex were worth $115,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Duality Advisers LP boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 52,102 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $2,175,000 after acquiring an additional 8,845 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 30,200 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,261,000 after acquiring an additional 2,800 shares during the last quarter. AIA Group Ltd boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 36.9% during the 4th quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 57,839 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $2,414,000 after acquiring an additional 15,583 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in Cognex by 16.8% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 453,691 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $18,937,000 after buying an additional 65,198 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in Cognex by 34.1% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 37,280 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,556,000 after buying an additional 9,485 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on CGNX. Truist Financial began coverage on Cognex in a report on Thursday, March 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $47.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup increased their price target on Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. StockNews.com lowered Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 19th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.70.

Cognex Trading Down 0.0 %

CGNX opened at $39.53 on Thursday. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $34.28 and a 12-month high of $59.51. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.81. The company has a market capitalization of $6.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.89 and a beta of 1.49.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.04. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.86% and a net margin of 13.52%. The business had revenue of $196.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $189.16 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.27 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Cognex’s payout ratio is 45.46%.

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.