Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. Has $5.79 Million Stock Holdings in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Crawford Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its position in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 83.7% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 127,857 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 58,267 shares during the quarter. Crawford Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $5,792,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CGNX. Quent Capital LLC bought a new position in Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. REAP Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Cognex in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. First Horizon Corp bought a new stake in Cognex during the third quarter worth about $38,000. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex during the second quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 402.2% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 919 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 736 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on CGNX. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Cognex from $47.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $63.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, February 13th. DA Davidson set a $55.00 price objective on Cognex and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Robert W. Baird set a $55.00 price objective on Cognex in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 target price (up from $50.00) on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, February 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.77.

Cognex Price Performance

CGNX opened at $47.98 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 71.61 and a beta of 1.45. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $46.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.18. Cognex Corporation has a one year low of $22.67 and a one year high of $59.88.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $238.92 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.16 EPS. Cognex’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 26th were paid a $0.085 dividend. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 26th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.75%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert Willett sold 177,052 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total transaction of $10,338,066.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the company’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 transaction, the director directly owned 16,222 shares in the company, valued at $901,618.76. This trade represents a 20.37% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 196,083 shares of company stock valued at $11,419,321. 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.