Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Shares Sold by Values First Advisors Inc.

Values First Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 1.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 36,744 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 715 shares during the period. Values First Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $1,534,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Cognex by 0.9% during the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 26,882 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,327,000 after acquiring an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. United Services Automobile Association grew its position in Cognex by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 11,682 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $496,000 after buying an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. First Republic Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Cognex by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. First Republic Investment Management Inc. now owns 18,843 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $934,000 after buying an additional 280 shares during the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its position in Cognex by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 78,043 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,312,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its position in Cognex by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 13,374 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $568,000 after buying an additional 313 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cognex Stock Performance

CGNX stock traded down $0.06 during trading on Friday, hitting $42.42. The stock had a trading volume of 765,495 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,342,108. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $39.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.14. Cognex Co. has a 1-year low of $34.28 and a 1-year high of $59.51. The stock has a market cap of $7.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.27 and a beta of 1.48.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $196.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.16 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.86% and a net margin of 13.52%. The firm’s revenue was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.27 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $47.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group raised Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.60.

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.