Nordea Investment Management AB Sells 45,328 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Nordea Investment Management AB decreased its stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Free Report) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,250,319 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after selling 45,328 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB owned approximately 1.31% of Cognex worth $81,349,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its position 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 worth $211,303,000 after purchasing an additional 131,560 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Cognex by 0.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,190,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $210,210,000 after acquiring an additional 42,882 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cognex by 8.1% in the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,018,539 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $187,907,000 after acquiring an additional 301,916 shares during the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN raised its holdings in Cognex by 8.9% during the third 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. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Cognex by 5.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,608,028 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $146,157,000 after purchasing an additional 175,423 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CGNX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Cognex from $43.00 to $42.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Stephens reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on shares of Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Cognex to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $47.92.

Cognex Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CGNX traded up $0.02 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $37.50. 956,662 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 983,892. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $38.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.94. Cognex Co. has a fifty-two week low of $34.79 and a fifty-two week high of $53.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 72.12 and a beta of 1.40.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This is an increase from Cognex's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.85%. Cognex's dividend payout ratio is 61.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. This trade represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.