Cognex Corporation $CGNX Shares Sold by Mackenzie Financial Corp

Mackenzie Financial Corp lowered its position in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 36.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,938,484 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,674,808 shares during the quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp owned 1.75% of Cognex worth $133,113,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CGNX. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Cognex by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,598,728 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $842,522,000 after purchasing an additional 374,999 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of Cognex by 13.4% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,025,371 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $361,382,000 after buying an additional 949,599 shares in the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 0.9% in the second quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 4,768,716 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $151,264,000 after buying an additional 40,927 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 43.9% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,024,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $137,003,000 after buying an additional 922,149 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its holdings in Cognex by 17.9% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 2,724,331 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $86,416,000 after acquiring an additional 413,088 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CGNX. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $63.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on Cognex from $47.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. DA Davidson set a $55.00 target price on Cognex and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 28th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $61.00 price target (up from $54.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $56.77.

Cognex Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $50.99 on Thursday. Cognex Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $22.67 and a fifty-two week high of $59.88. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.13. The company has a market cap of $8.45 billion, a PE ratio of 76.11 and a beta of 1.46.

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

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 26th will be issued a $0.085 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 26th. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.75%.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other Cognex news, VP Laura Ann Macdonald sold 14,881 shares of the 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $126,437.92. This trade represents a 87.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Robert Willett sold 177,052 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total value of $10,338,066.28. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 196,083 shares of company stock worth $11,419,321 in the last 90 days. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.