Teacher Retirement System of Texas Invests $1.15 Million in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 32,151 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock, valued at approximately $1,153,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Cognex by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $72,262,000 after purchasing an additional 87,790 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,427,756 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $51,199,000 after buying an additional 42,292 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Cognex in the third quarter valued at approximately $790,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 75.1% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,870 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $102,000 after acquiring an additional 1,231 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TCW Group Inc. grew its position in Cognex by 19.8% during the 3rd quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 583,150 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $23,618,000 after acquiring an additional 96,330 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on CGNX shares. Stephens reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Truist Financial reiterated a "hold" rating and set a $37.00 price target (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of Cognex from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. UBS Group reduced their target price 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. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on shares of Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $44.83.

Cognex Stock Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ CGNX traded up $0.58 on Wednesday, reaching $30.59. The company had a trading volume of 1,385,985 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,271,577. Cognex Co. has a 52 week low of $29.29 and a 52 week high of $53.13. The stock has a market cap of $5.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.15 and a beta of 1.56. The stock's 50 day moving average is $34.23 and its 200-day moving average is $37.33.

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%. As a group, analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.05%. Cognex's payout ratio is 52.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 4,566 shares in the company, valued at $149,445.18. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company's stock.

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.