William Blair Investment Management LLC Acquires 119,188 Shares of Cognex Corporation $CGNX

William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 888,275 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 119,188 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC owned 0.53% of Cognex worth $40,239,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Quent Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Cognex during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. REAP Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Cognex during the third quarter worth $27,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in Cognex by 402.2% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 919 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 736 shares during the period. Penserra Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Cognex in the second quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cognex during the second quarter valued at about $29,000. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on CGNX. Wall Street Zen raised Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on Cognex from $47.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $63.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Cognex in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Two equities research 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $55.21.

Cognex Stock Down 1.7%

Cognex stock opened at $54.40 on Monday. Cognex Corporation has a 52 week low of $22.67 and a 52 week high of $59.88. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $43.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.65. The stock has a market cap of $9.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 81.20 and a beta of 1.53.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.05. The business 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%.Cognex’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.16 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In other Cognex news, VP Laura Ann Macdonald sold 14,881 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.16, for a total value of $850,597.96. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 2,212 shares in the company, valued at $126,437.92. The trade was a 87.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert Willett sold 177,052 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total value of $10,338,066.28. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 196,083 shares of company stock worth $11,419,321 in the last quarter. Insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Profile

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.