Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Lowers Holdings in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System trimmed its holdings in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 18.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 8,033 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,785 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Cognex were worth $240,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its position in Cognex by 51.3% in the first quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 48,640 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,451,000 after acquiring an additional 16,489 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Cognex by 155.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,062 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 646 shares during the period. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Cognex by 7.4% in the first quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,698 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $230,000 after acquiring an additional 532 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cognex during the first quarter worth $369,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 457,636 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $16,411,000 after buying an additional 14,396 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cognex Price Performance

Cognex stock opened at $43.01 on Tuesday. Cognex Corporation has a 1-year low of $22.67 and a 1-year high of $44.38. The stock has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a PE ratio of 60.58 and a beta of 1.47. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $34.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $31.91.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.02. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.65% and a net margin of 13.13%. The company had revenue of $249.09 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $246.70 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.23 earnings per share. Cognex’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 14th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 14th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.07%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on CGNX shares. Melius upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 10th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on Cognex from $36.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. DA Davidson raised their price target on Cognex from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Cowen upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Cognex from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.31.

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.