Royce & Associates LP Acquires 18,044 Shares of Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Royce & Associates LP grew its stake in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 1.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,047,369 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,044 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Cognex were worth $47,446,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 15.5% during the third quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 888,275 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $40,239,000 after buying an additional 119,188 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 342.2% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 974,865 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $44,162,000 after acquiring an additional 754,389 shares in the last quarter. Huntington National Bank grew its position in Cognex by 188.4% during the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,684 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $76,000 after acquiring an additional 1,100 shares during the last quarter. Keystone Investors PTE Ltd. bought a new stake in Cognex during the 3rd quarter worth $644,000. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its holdings in Cognex by 454.9% in the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 430,404 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $19,497,000 after purchasing an additional 352,833 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on CGNX shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Robert W. Baird set a $55.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Truist Financial cut their price target on Cognex from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 18th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cognex has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.21.

Cognex Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX opened at $54.40 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.66. Cognex Corporation has a 1-year low of $22.67 and a 1-year high of $59.88. The firm has a market cap of $9.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 81.20 and a beta of 1.53.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $252.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $238.92 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 9.02% and a net margin of 11.51%.The business’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.16 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 26th will be given a $0.085 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 26th. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 50.75%.

Insider Activity

In other Cognex news, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.58, for a total value of $230,657.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 16,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $901,618.76. This trade represents a 20.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robert Willett sold 177,052 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total transaction of $10,338,066.28. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 196,083 shares of company stock worth $11,419,321 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

About Cognex

Cognex Corporation is a leading provider of machine vision systems, software, sensors and industrial barcode readers used to automate manufacturing, logistics and distribution processes. The company designs and develops vision-based products that help manufacturers and logistics operators inspect, identify and guide parts, assemblies and packaged goods in real time. Its solutions are applied in a broad range of industries, including automotive, electronics, semiconductor, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, and general manufacturing.

The company’s product portfolio includes stand-alone vision systems, vision sensors and deep learning-based software platforms that enable automated inspection, quality control and traceability.