Raymond James & Associates Grows Stock Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Raymond James & Associates increased its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 8.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 379,100 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 29,118 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates owned approximately 0.22% of Cognex worth $17,727,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Contour Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cognex in the 4th quarter worth $11,454,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 38.4% in the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 64,855 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,751,000 after purchasing an additional 17,978 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,522,549 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $743,307,000 after buying an additional 188,485 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its holdings in Cognex by 153.6% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 134,516 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $5,706,000 after buying an additional 81,467 shares during the period. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Cognex by 30.5% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 870,822 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $36,940,000 after buying an additional 203,684 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $38.79 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $6.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.88 and a beta of 1.42. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $45.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.06. Cognex Co. has a one year low of $34.28 and a one year high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $239.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $240.33 million. Cognex had a net margin of 9.29% and a return on equity of 4.97%. The business’s revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.32 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be issued a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 51.72%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on CGNX. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Cognex from $55.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. HSBC upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $52.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. DA Davidson lowered their target price on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. Vertical Research began coverage on shares of Cognex in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $58.00 target price for the company. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cognex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.62.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In other Cognex news, Director Dianne M. Parrotte acquired 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were bought at an average price of $38.62 per share, with a total value of $77,240.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,340 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $437,950.80. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company 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.