271,154 Cognex Corporation $CGNX Shares Sold by Royce & Associates LP

Royce & Associates LP lowered its holdings in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 30.9% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 607,336 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 271,154 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Cognex were worth $36,835,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CGNX. IFP Advisors Inc boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 21.6% in the second quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 956 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 170 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 0.5% during the first quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 39,853 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,952,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. raised its position in Cognex by 81.3% during the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 446 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. SYM FINANCIAL Corp raised its position in Cognex by 6.3% during the third quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 3,372 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $204,000 after buying an additional 201 shares during the period. Finally, Eastern Bank raised its position in Cognex by 20.0% during the third quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 1,242 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $75,000 after buying an additional 207 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CGNX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Cognex from $74.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 6th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on Cognex from $80.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 6th. HSBC cut Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $65.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their target price on Cognex from $80.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Cognex in a research report on Wednesday, November 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $71.00.

Cognex Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX traded down $0.76 during trading on Friday, reaching $50.01. 1,189,581 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,153,212. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $58.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $58.30. The firm has a market cap of $8.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.97 and a beta of 1.49. Cognex Corporation has a 1-year low of $34.60 and a 1-year high of $72.88.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.01. Cognex had a net margin of 21.50% and a return on equity of 15.75%. The business had revenue of $313.39 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $313.62 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.33 EPS. Cognex’s revenue was up 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cognex Corporation will post 1.71 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 3rd. Investors of record on Thursday, November 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. This is a positive change from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.0850. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 19th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is 23.78%.

Cognex Company Profile

Cognex Corporation develops machine vision products that help businesses automate the inspection, identification and measurement of manufactured goods and packages. Its offerings include vision systems, barcode readers, vision sensors and software that analyze images captured during production and logistics operations. The company’s technology is used in industries such as automotive, electronics, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and logistics. Applications include checking product quality, guiding robots and reading codes on items moving through manufacturing and distribution facilities.