First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Invests $209,000 in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. acquired a new position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,474 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,522,549 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $743,307,000 after buying an additional 188,485 shares during the period. Brown Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC now owns 5,419,313 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $226,202,000 after buying an additional 262,003 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 41.4% during the first quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 3,716,623 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $157,659,000 after buying an additional 1,088,095 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 29.0% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,663,900 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $113,722,000 after buying an additional 598,207 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 2.5% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 2,154,625 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $91,399,000 after buying an additional 53,267 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other news, Director Dianne M. Parrotte bought 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $38.62 per share, with a total value of $77,240.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 11,340 shares in the company, valued at $437,950.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX traded down $0.22 on Tuesday, reaching $39.35. 180,910 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,334,788. The company’s 50 day moving average is $45.73 and its 200-day moving average is $43.09. Cognex Co. has a fifty-two week low of $34.28 and a fifty-two week high of $53.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.75 billion, a PE ratio of 67.69 and a beta of 1.42.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.03. Cognex had a net margin of 9.29% and a return on equity of 4.97%. The company had revenue of $239.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $240.33 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.46 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.72%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on CGNX shares. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on Cognex from $48.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. HSBC upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $52.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Cognex from $45.00 to $39.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research report on Monday, August 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.62.

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.