SG Americas Securities LLC Has $10.44 Million Stake in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 1,917.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 290,024 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 275,646 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC owned approximately 0.17% of Cognex worth $10,435,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 13.3% during the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 318,984 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $14,450,000 after acquiring an additional 37,405 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in Cognex by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,101,583 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $292,224,000 after purchasing an additional 76,212 shares during the last quarter. IMC Chicago LLC acquired a new stake in Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at $5,761,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Cognex by 43.9% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,024,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $137,003,000 after purchasing an additional 922,149 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in Cognex by 203.2% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 266,954 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $12,093,000 after purchasing an additional 178,911 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on CGNX. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Cognex from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Cognex from $50.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Cognex from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $55.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 9th. Barclays lifted their price target on Cognex from $61.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 16th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $55.00 price target on Cognex in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.00.

Cognex Stock Performance

NASDAQ CGNX opened at $47.59 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $48.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.03 and a beta of 1.45. Cognex Corporation has a 1 year low of $22.67 and a 1 year high of $59.88.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $252.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.92 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 9.02% and a net margin of 11.51%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.16 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 26th were given a dividend of $0.085 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 26th. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 50.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Laura Ann Macdonald sold 14,881 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $126,437.92. This represents a 87.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Robert Willett sold 177,052 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total value of $10,338,066.28. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 196,083 shares of company stock worth $11,419,321 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Company Profile

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.