New York State Common Retirement Fund Decreases Stock Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lessened its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,160,464 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 16,011 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Cognex were worth $48,438,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $12,417,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in Cognex during the 4th quarter worth $2,016,000. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 1,206,227 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,348,000 after buying an additional 99,647 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cognex by 49.4% in the fourth quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 402,248 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $17,120,000 after buying an additional 132,991 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 26.3% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 227,641 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $9,661,000 after buying an additional 47,408 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total value of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of CGNX opened at $39.53 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $40.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $38.81. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $34.28 and a 12-month high of $59.51. The firm has a market cap of $6.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.89 and a beta of 1.49.

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

Cognex Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.