Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Position Lessened by Yousif Capital Management LLC

Yousif Capital Management LLC lowered its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 0.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 80,017 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 466 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $3,340,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its stake 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. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 31,483 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 10.2% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,082,608 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $88,386,000 after acquiring an additional 192,206 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 156.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,065,693 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $86,862,000 after acquiring an additional 1,260,282 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,002,798 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $83,597,000 after acquiring an additional 52,672 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cognex Stock Up 2.1 %

Cognex stock opened at $40.61 on Monday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $40.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.77. Cognex Co. has a 12 month low of $34.28 and a 12 month high of $59.51. The stock has a market cap of $6.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.53 and a beta of 1.49.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.04. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.86% and a net margin of 13.52%. The business 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 company posted $0.27 earnings per share. Cognex’s revenue was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Cognex Profile

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.