PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Cuts Position in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. cut its position in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 25.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,864 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,972 shares during the quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $175,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Cognex by 78.2% during the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 148,060 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $5,310,000 after buying an additional 64,953 shares during the period. Forum Financial Management LP acquired a new position in Cognex during the 4th quarter worth $210,000. First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in Cognex by 18.5% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 89,544 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,211,000 after purchasing an additional 13,951 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Cognex by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,902,930 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $68,239,000 after purchasing an additional 117,089 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S raised its position in Cognex by 39.1% in the 4th quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 2,817 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $101,000 after purchasing an additional 792 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CGNX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Cognex from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Cowen upgraded shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Cognex from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 12th. TD Cowen raised Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Cognex from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, June 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.31.

Cognex Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX opened at $43.01 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.58 and a beta of 1.47. Cognex Corporation has a twelve month low of $22.67 and a twelve month high of $44.38. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $34.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $31.91.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.02. Cognex had a net margin of 13.13% and a return on equity of 6.65%. The firm had revenue of $249.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $246.70 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.23 EPS. Cognex’s quarterly revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 14th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.07%.

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.