Captrust Financial Advisors Cuts Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Captrust Financial Advisors trimmed its holdings in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 1.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 70,413 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 1,337 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors’ holdings in Cognex were worth $2,852,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 5,230,271 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $211,303,000 after acquiring an additional 131,560 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 8.1% in the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,018,539 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $187,907,000 after acquiring an additional 301,916 shares during the period. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 3,445,894 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $161,130,000 after acquiring an additional 49,026 shares during the period. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 30.5% in the 2nd quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 2,056,701 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $96,171,000 after acquiring an additional 480,143 shares during the period. Finally, Copeland Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 1,767,426 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $71,581,000 after acquiring an additional 162,965 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cognex Stock Down 1.2 %

CGNX stock opened at $38.80 on Thursday. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.79 and a 52-week high of $53.13. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 74.62 and a beta of 1.39.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.08 dividend. This is a positive change from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.54%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CGNX has been the topic of a number of research reports. StockNews.com upgraded Cognex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Truist Financial cut Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $46.00 to $43.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Stephens upgraded Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $45.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.91.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. This trade represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.