Cerity Partners LLC Invests $239,000 in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Cerity Partners LLC purchased a new position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 5,736 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its position in Cognex by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,842,978 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $118,666,000 after acquiring an additional 31,483 shares in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its position in Cognex by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 1,206,227 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,348,000 after acquiring an additional 99,647 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. grew its position in Cognex by 21.4% in the fourth quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 13,591 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $567,000 after acquiring an additional 2,397 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in Cognex by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,002,798 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $83,597,000 after acquiring an additional 52,672 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its position in Cognex by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,905,000 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $80,706,000 after acquiring an additional 56,715 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total value of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CGNX. Truist Financial began coverage on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $47.00 target price for the company. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 19th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cognex presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.70.

Cognex Trading Up 2.1 %

Cognex stock opened at $40.61 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $40.40 and a 200-day moving average of $38.77. The firm has a market cap of $6.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.53 and a beta of 1.49. Cognex Co. has a 1-year low of $34.28 and a 1-year high of $59.51.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.04. Cognex had a net margin of 13.52% and a return on equity of 6.86%. The company had revenue of $196.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.16 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.27 earnings per share. Cognex’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Cognex’s payout ratio is currently 45.46%.

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.