Cognex Corporation $CGNX Shares Purchased by Nordea Investment Management AB

Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 0.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 8,101,583 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 76,212 shares during the quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB’s holdings in Cognex were worth $292,224,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in Cognex by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 318,984 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $14,450,000 after acquiring an additional 37,405 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Cognex by 43.9% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,024,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $137,003,000 after acquiring an additional 922,149 shares during the last quarter. IMC Chicago LLC acquired a new position in Cognex during the third quarter worth about $5,761,000. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 203.2% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 266,954 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $12,093,000 after purchasing an additional 178,911 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 121.5% in the second quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 12,990 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $412,000 after purchasing an additional 7,126 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 16,222 shares in the company, valued at approximately $901,618.76. This represents a 20.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert Willett sold 177,052 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total value of $10,338,066.28. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 196,083 shares of company stock worth $11,419,321. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CGNX. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 28th. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on Cognex from $47.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price target (up from $50.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cognex from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $55.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, March 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $55.00 price objective on Cognex in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.00.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of CGNX opened at $49.24 on Friday. Cognex Corporation has a 1 year low of $22.67 and a 1 year high of $59.88. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $47.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.39. The company has a market capitalization of $8.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.49 and a beta of 1.46.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $252.34 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $238.92 million. Cognex had a net margin of 11.51% and a return on equity of 9.02%. Cognex’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.16 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 26th were given a $0.085 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 26th. This represents a $0.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Cognex’s payout ratio is currently 50.75%.

Cognex Company Profile

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.