Royce & Associates LP Purchases 18,044 Shares of Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Royce & Associates LP lifted its position in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,047,369 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,044 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP owned approximately 0.62% of Cognex worth $47,446,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Quent Capital LLC bought a new position in Cognex in the third quarter worth $26,000. REAP Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Cognex in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 402.2% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 919 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 736 shares during the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Cognex during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. acquired a new stake in Cognex in the second quarter worth about $29,000. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CGNX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Cognex in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $61.00 price target (up from $54.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $70.00 target price (up from $50.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $63.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, February 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $55.21.

Cognex Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $54.40 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.66. The company has a market capitalization of $9.01 billion, a PE ratio of 81.20 and a beta of 1.53. Cognex Corporation has a 12 month low of $22.67 and a 12 month high of $59.88.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.05. The company 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.16 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

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

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.