Duality Advisers LP Acquires 8,845 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Duality Advisers LP grew its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 20.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 52,102 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,845 shares during the period. Duality Advisers LP’s holdings in Cognex were worth $2,175,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in Cognex during the fourth quarter worth $12,417,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in Cognex during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,016,000. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its holdings in Cognex by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 1,206,227 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $50,348,000 after purchasing an additional 99,647 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Cognex by 49.4% during the fourth quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 402,248 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $17,120,000 after buying an additional 132,991 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 26.3% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 227,641 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $9,661,000 after buying an additional 47,408 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were 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 accessible through this hyperlink. 1.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cognex Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX traded up $0.20 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $38.66. 222,259 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,501,751. The firm has a market cap of $6.64 billion, a PE ratio of 58.27 and a beta of 1.49. Cognex Co. has a fifty-two week low of $34.28 and a fifty-two week high of $59.51. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.84.

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

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.46%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on CGNX shares. StockNews.com cut Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 19th. Truist Financial began coverage on Cognex in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $47.00 target price for the company. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Three investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.70.

Cognex Company 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.