Handelsbanken Fonder AB Purchases 2,800 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 10.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 30,200 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,800 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Cognex were worth $1,261,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Cognex in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its position in shares of Cognex by 71.1% in the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 804 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cognex by 71.8% in the 4th quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,295 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 541 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in shares of Cognex by 18.8% in the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 2,859 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $119,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teza Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cognex in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $208,000. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on CGNX. UBS Group raised shares of Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective 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 research report on Thursday, March 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $47.00 price objective 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. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective 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. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cognex has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.70.

Cognex Trading Up 2.1 %

CGNX opened at $40.61 on Monday. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $34.28 and a 12-month high of $59.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.97 billion, a PE ratio of 61.53 and a beta of 1.49. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $40.40 and a two-hundred day moving average of $38.77.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $196.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.16 million. Cognex had a net margin of 13.52% and a return on equity of 6.86%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.27 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.46%.

Cognex Company 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.