Barclays PLC Grows Stock Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Free Report) by 78.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 148,060 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after purchasing an additional 64,953 shares during the period. Barclays PLC owned approximately 0.09% of Cognex worth $5,310,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Cognex during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Cognex by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 885 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 295 shares in the last quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in Cognex by 129.9% during the 4th quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,007 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 569 shares during the period. Clean Yield Group grew its position in Cognex by 1,686.7% in the 4th quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 1,072 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 1,012 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. increased its stake in Cognex by 50.2% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 1,047 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company's stock.

Cognex Stock Down 0.4 %

Cognex stock traded down $0.12 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $26.80. The company had a trading volume of 4,678,007 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,511,338. The stock has a market cap of $4.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.94 and a beta of 1.56. Cognex Co. has a 1 year low of $22.67 and a 1 year high of $53.13. The business has a fifty day moving average of $28.95 and a 200 day moving average of $35.26.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share 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%. Equities analysts anticipate that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 27th. Cognex's dividend payout ratio is currently 52.46%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on CGNX shares. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Cognex from $37.00 to $26.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group cut their price objective on Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Cowen upgraded Cognex from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded Cognex from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cognex has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $42.23.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company's stock.

About Cognex

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.