Bank of New York Mellon Corp Purchases 576,788 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Free Report) by 38.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,092,681 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after purchasing an additional 576,788 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned approximately 1.22% of Cognex worth $75,044,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 2.6% in the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 5,230,271 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $211,303,000 after purchasing an additional 131,560 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Cognex by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,190,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $210,210,000 after acquiring an additional 42,882 shares in the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN lifted its stake in Cognex by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 3,751,807 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $151,948,000 after acquiring an additional 305,913 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Cognex by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,608,028 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $146,157,000 after acquiring an additional 175,423 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in Cognex by 122.7% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,834,755 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $114,808,000 after acquiring an additional 1,562,115 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company's stock.

Cognex Trading Up 1.7 %

Cognex stock traded up $0.53 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $32.09. 2,126,469 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,503,140. Cognex Co. has a 12 month low of $31.06 and a 12 month high of $53.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $36.72 and a 200 day moving average of $38.40. The firm has a market cap of $5.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.61 and a beta of 1.40.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 5.65%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.00%. Cognex's payout ratio is 52.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total value of $222,662.19. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,566 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $149,445.18. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on CGNX. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Cognex from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Stephens reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Cognex has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $44.83.

Cognex Company 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.