Retirement Systems of Alabama Grows Stock Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 215,600 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 473 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Cognex were worth $8,999,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CGNX. United Services Automobile Association grew its position in Cognex by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 11,682 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $496,000 after buying an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 11.9% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,760 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $115,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 0.4% during the third quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 78,043 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,312,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its holdings in Cognex by 2.4% during the third quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 13,374 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $568,000 after purchasing an additional 313 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its position in Cognex by 71.1% in the third 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 period. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 transaction of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CGNX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group raised Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on Cognex from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. StockNews.com cut shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 19th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Stephens increased their target price on shares of Cognex from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $48.58.

Cognex Price Performance

Cognex stock opened at $43.79 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $40.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 66.35 and a beta of 1.48. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $34.28 and a 12-month high of $59.51.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 EPS 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 firm had revenue of $196.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.16 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.27 EPS. Cognex’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.46%.

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.