Insider Selling: Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) EVP Sells 6,803 Shares of Stock

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total transaction of $222,662.19. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Cognex Trading Down 1.4 %

CGNX stock opened at $32.71 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $37.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $38.64. Cognex Co. has a 12 month low of $32.14 and a 12 month high of $53.13. The company has a market cap of $5.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.62 and a beta of 1.40.

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

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 52.46%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cognex

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CGNX. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Cognex by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,479,828 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $662,687,000 after purchasing an additional 296,251 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cognex by 27.3% during the 4th quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 5,840,117 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $209,427,000 after buying an additional 1,253,996 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its holdings in Cognex by 2.6% in the third 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 acquiring an additional 131,560 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Cognex by 0.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,190,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $210,210,000 after acquiring an additional 42,882 shares during the period. Finally, Pictet Asset Management Holding SA increased its stake in Cognex by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 3,820,394 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $136,999,000 after acquiring an additional 461,724 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Truist Financial reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $37.00 price target (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.83.

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.