Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Position Increased by Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Free Report) by 1.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 17,522,549 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after purchasing an additional 188,485 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 10.21% of Cognex worth $743,307,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brown Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Cognex by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC now owns 5,419,313 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $226,202,000 after buying an additional 262,003 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 41.4% in the 1st quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 3,716,623 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $157,659,000 after acquiring an additional 1,088,095 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,842,978 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $118,666,000 after purchasing an additional 31,483 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in Cognex by 29.0% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,663,900 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $113,722,000 after purchasing an additional 598,207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Cognex by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,002,798 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $83,597,000 after purchasing an additional 52,672 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Vertical Research started coverage on shares of Cognex in a report on Tuesday. They issued a "buy" rating and a $58.00 price objective for the company. HSBC upgraded shares of Cognex from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $52.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Cognex from $36.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a "sell" rating in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $50.14.

Cognex Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX traded down $1.58 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $48.69. The company had a trading volume of 1,185,055 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,318,975. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.28 and a 52-week high of $55.08. The stock has a market cap of $8.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 83.95 and a beta of 1.42. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $47.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.65.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.81% and a net margin of 11.76%. The company had revenue of $210.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $198.14 million. On average, equities analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.46 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 15th. Cognex's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.72%.

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.