Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Shares Sold by M&T Bank Corp

M&T Bank Corp lowered its position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 8.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 76,601 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 7,312 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Cognex were worth $2,747,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its holdings in 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 valued at $211,303,000 after purchasing an additional 131,560 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Cognex by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,190,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $210,210,000 after purchasing an additional 42,882 shares during the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN increased its holdings in Cognex by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 3,751,807 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $151,948,000 after purchasing an additional 305,913 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Cognex by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,608,028 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $146,157,000 after purchasing an additional 175,423 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in Cognex by 122.7% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,834,755 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $114,808,000 after purchasing an additional 1,562,115 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total value of $222,662.19. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $149,445.18. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the business’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 corporate insiders.

Cognex Trading Up 4.1 %

Cognex stock opened at $33.97 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.69 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $36.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.31. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $31.06 and a 12-month high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a return on equity of 5.65% and a net margin of 11.61%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on CGNX. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $37.00 target price (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, February 14th. HSBC downgraded shares of Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.83.

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.