Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Acquires 41,378 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 3.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,428,351 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 41,378 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned about 0.83% of Cognex worth $51,221,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. CWM LLC boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 86,941 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,521,000 after purchasing an additional 1,389 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in Cognex by 2.4% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 21,919 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $888,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB grew its position in shares of Cognex by 21.4% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,700,000 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $68,850,000 after buying an additional 300,000 shares during the period. Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 9.9% in the 3rd quarter. Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 293,782 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $11,446,000 after acquiring an additional 26,559 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its position in shares of Cognex by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 19,929 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $807,000 after acquiring an additional 1,110 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,065,118.24. This 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on CGNX shares. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Cognex from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.92.

Cognex Trading Up 3.3 %

Shares of CGNX opened at $39.46 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 75.89 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex Co. has a 12 month low of $34.98 and a 12 month high of $53.13. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.35.

Cognex 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.