Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Shares Sold by Riverbridge Partners LLC

Riverbridge Partners LLC cut its holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 10.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,333,622 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 155,723 shares during the period. Riverbridge Partners LLC owned about 0.78% of Cognex worth $47,824,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. boosted its stake in Cognex by 9.4% in the third quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 4,055 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $164,000 after acquiring an additional 349 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 123.1% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 394 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Cognex by 20.1% during the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 2,732 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $111,000 after purchasing an additional 457 shares during the period. Fiduciary Trust Co grew its stake in Cognex by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co now owns 5,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $220,000 after buying an additional 475 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC increased its position in Cognex by 4.0% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 12,491 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $506,000 after buying an additional 478 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CGNX has been the subject of several analyst reports. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.92.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. This trade represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cognex Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $40.38 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $38.10 and its 200-day moving average is $40.35. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.93 billion, a PE ratio of 77.66 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $34.79 and a 12-month high of $53.13.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.08 dividend. This is an increase from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 61.54%.

Cognex Company 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.