Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Stake Cut by Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. trimmed its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 23.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,530,671 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 472,127 shares during the quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $71,951,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its stake in Cognex by 0.3% in the first quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 216,166 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $9,170,000 after buying an additional 566 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 38.4% during the first quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 64,855 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $2,751,000 after purchasing an additional 17,978 shares during the period. Perigon Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 46.0% during the first quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,144 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $388,000 after purchasing an additional 2,881 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 3.6% during the first quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 13,871 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $588,000 after purchasing an additional 487 shares during the period. Finally, Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 13.9% during the first quarter. Foster Victor Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 416,770 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $17,213,000 after purchasing an additional 50,951 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on CGNX shares. Citigroup raised their price target on Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Cognex from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Cognex from $36.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, May 6th. UBS Group raised Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their target price on Cognex from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Three research analysts have 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.54.

Cognex Stock Performance

CGNX traded up $0.12 during trading on Friday, reaching $47.28. The company had a trading volume of 654,489 shares, compared to its average volume of 924,326. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.76. The company has a market cap of $8.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 81.52 and a beta of 1.42. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $34.28 and a 12-month high of $59.51.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.81% and a net margin of 11.76%. The firm had revenue of $210.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $198.14 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.46 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were given a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.63%. Cognex’s payout ratio is presently 51.72%.

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.