Essex Investment Management Co. LLC Has $1.86 Million Stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Essex Investment Management Co. LLC lessened its position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 8.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 51,771 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 4,540 shares during the quarter. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $1,857,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 123.1% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 394 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Cognex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 50.0% in the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 885 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares during the period. Truvestments Capital LLC bought a new position in Cognex during the third quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Clean Yield Group raised its position in shares of Cognex by 1,686.7% in the 4th quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 1,072 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 1,012 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on CGNX. Citigroup reduced their target price on Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Cognex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. HSBC lowered shares of Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cognex presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.83.

Cognex Trading Up 4.1 %

NASDAQ CGNX opened at $33.97 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $36.59 and a 200-day moving average of $38.30. The company has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.69 and a beta of 1.43. Cognex Co. has a 1-year low of $31.06 and a 1-year high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a return on equity of 5.65% and a net margin of 11.61%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.94%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.46%.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total value of $222,662.19. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,566 shares in the company, valued at $149,445.18. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cognex 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.