Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co Takes Position in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 19,747 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $895,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quent Capital LLC bought a new position in Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. REAP Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex in the third quarter valued at $27,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 402.2% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 919 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 736 shares during the period. Penserra Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex in the second quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. bought a new position in Cognex during the second quarter valued at about $29,000. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CGNX. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Cognex from $50.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. DA Davidson set a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $70.00 price objective (up from $50.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $61.00 price objective (up from $54.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.21.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other Cognex news, VP Laura Ann Macdonald sold 14,881 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.16, for a total value of $850,597.96. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 2,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $126,437.92. The trade was a 87.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.58, for a total transaction of $230,657.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 16,222 shares in the company, valued at approximately $901,618.76. This trade represents a 20.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 196,083 shares of company stock valued at $11,419,321. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cognex Trading Down 3.5%

CGNX opened at $49.45 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $44.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.98. Cognex Corporation has a 1 year low of $22.67 and a 1 year high of $59.88. The stock has a market cap of $8.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 73.81 and a beta of 1.46.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $252.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $238.92 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 9.02% and a net margin of 11.51%.The business’s revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.16 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 26th will be issued a $0.085 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 26th. This represents a $0.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 50.75%.

About Cognex

Cognex Corporation is a leading provider of machine vision systems, software, sensors and industrial barcode readers used to automate manufacturing, logistics and distribution processes. The company designs and develops vision-based products that help manufacturers and logistics operators inspect, identify and guide parts, assemblies and packaged goods in real time. Its solutions are applied in a broad range of industries, including automotive, electronics, semiconductor, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, and general manufacturing.

The company’s product portfolio includes stand-alone vision systems, vision sensors and deep learning-based software platforms that enable automated inspection, quality control and traceability.