Van ECK Associates Corp Raises Stock Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Free Report) by 27.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 127,256 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after acquiring an additional 27,727 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp owned 0.07% of Cognex worth $4,563,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Creative Planning grew its stake in Cognex by 2.4% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 21,919 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $888,000 after acquiring an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 19,929 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $807,000 after buying an additional 1,110 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 719.2% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,171 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $88,000 after buying an additional 1,906 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 25.1% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 474,163 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $19,204,000 after buying an additional 95,063 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Copeland Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 1,767,426 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $71,581,000 after buying an additional 162,965 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Cognex Stock Down 1.8 %

CGNX traded down $0.60 on Friday, reaching $32.80. 1,669,656 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,517,452. Cognex Co. has a one year low of $32.35 and a one year high of $53.13. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.75. The company has a market cap of $5.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.77 and a beta of 1.40.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th. Cognex's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.46%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CGNX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Truist Financial reissued a "hold" rating and issued a $37.00 price objective (down from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Stephens reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $44.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other Cognex news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% 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.