GSA Capital Partners LLP Sells 73,989 Shares of Cognex Corporation $CGNX

GSA Capital Partners LLP cut its holdings in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 91.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,043 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 73,989 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP’s holdings in Cognex were worth $319,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Rothschild Investment LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 21,060.0% during the 3rd quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 1,058 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 1,053 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Cognex by 16.0% during the 3rd quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 19,734 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $894,000 after buying an additional 2,726 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Cognex by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,598,728 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $842,522,000 after buying an additional 374,999 shares during the period. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Cognex in the third quarter valued at approximately $155,000. Finally, Krilogy Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cognex in the third quarter valued at approximately $372,000. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on CGNX shares. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, February 13th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on Cognex from $47.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $61.00 price objective (up from $54.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their target price on Cognex from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.21.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In other Cognex news, Director Robert Willett sold 177,052 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total value of $10,338,066.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.58, for a total value of $230,657.00. Following the sale, the director owned 16,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $901,618.76. This represents a 20.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 196,083 shares of company stock worth $11,419,321 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Stock Performance

CGNX opened at $54.40 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.66. Cognex Corporation has a 52-week low of $22.67 and a 52-week high of $59.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.01 billion, a PE ratio of 81.20 and a beta of 1.53.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $252.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.92 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 9.02% and a net margin of 11.51%.The business’s revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.16 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 26th will be given a $0.085 dividend. This represents a $0.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 26th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 50.75%.

About Cognex

Cognex Corporation is a leading provider of machine vision systems, software, sensors and industrial barcode readers used to automate manufacturing, logistics and distribution processes. The company designs and develops vision-based products that help manufacturers and logistics operators inspect, identify and guide parts, assemblies and packaged goods in real time. Its solutions are applied in a broad range of industries, including automotive, electronics, semiconductor, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, and general manufacturing.

The company’s product portfolio includes stand-alone vision systems, vision sensors and deep learning-based software platforms that enable automated inspection, quality control and traceability.