Cerity Partners LLC Buys Shares of 5,736 Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Cerity Partners LLC bought a new stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 5,736 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $239,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. United Services Automobile Association grew its stake in Cognex by 2.4% in the third quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 11,682 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $496,000 after acquiring an additional 279 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 0.4% during the third quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 78,043 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,312,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 2.4% during the third quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 13,374 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $568,000 after buying an additional 313 shares during the period. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 71.1% during the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 804 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 334 shares during the period. Finally, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 0.8% during the third quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 42,844 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,818,000 after buying an additional 347 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cognex Stock Up 2.1 %

NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $40.61 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.53 and a beta of 1.49. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $34.28 and a 12-month high of $59.51. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $40.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.77.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $196.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.16 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.86% and a net margin of 13.52%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.27 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CGNX. UBS Group raised Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. StockNews.com cut Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 19th. Truist Financial began coverage on Cognex in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $47.00 price target for the company. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.70.

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.