Impax Asset Management Group plc Has $181.78 Million Stock Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Impax Asset Management Group plc trimmed its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Free Report) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,082,314 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after selling 147,957 shares during the quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc owned approximately 2.96% of Cognex worth $181,782,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CGNX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $72,262,000 after acquiring an additional 87,790 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at $790,000. Premier Fund Managers Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 255.1% in the third quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 24,854 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $1,001,000 after purchasing an additional 17,854 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 5.9% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,386,973 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $56,172,000 after buying an additional 77,146 shares during the period. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 116.0% during the third quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 789,550 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $31,977,000 after buying an additional 423,950 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 1.10% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CGNX. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a "sell" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Truist Financial reissued a "hold" rating and issued a $37.00 price target (down from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 14th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Cognex from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $44.83.

Cognex Trading Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ CGNX traded down $0.03 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $32.81. 1,300,218 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,420,928. The company has a market capitalization of $5.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.79 and a beta of 1.40. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.72. Cognex Co. has a 12 month low of $32.14 and a 12 month high of $53.13.

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 for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a return on equity of 5.65% and a net margin of 11.61%. Equities research analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company 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 $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. Cognex's payout ratio is presently 52.46%.

Cognex 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.