Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. Has $56.28 Million Stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lowered its holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 21.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,348,427 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 365,005 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $56,283,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 17,207,485 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $852,631,000 after acquiring an additional 87,789 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Cognex by 1.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,895,177 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $658,855,000 after purchasing an additional 180,188 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Cognex by 0.8% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,778,896 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $445,842,000 after purchasing an additional 45,764 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cognex by 17.8% during the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,536,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $234,962,000 after purchasing an additional 837,487 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,294,480 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $249,423,000 after purchasing an additional 151,776 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX opened at $38.69 on Friday. Cognex Co. has a one year low of $34.28 and a one year high of $59.51. The firm has a market cap of $6.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.62 and a beta of 1.49. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $40.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.90.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. Cognex had a net margin of 13.52% and a return on equity of 6.86%. The business had revenue of $196.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.16 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.27 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial began coverage on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, March 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $47.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. StockNews.com downgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 19th. Finally, UBS Group raised 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.70.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

About Cognex

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.