Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Shares Sold by C WorldWide Group Holding A S

C WorldWide Group Holding A S cut its holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 75.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 130,859 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 408,361 shares during the period. C WorldWide Group Holding A S’s holdings in Cognex were worth $4,693,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 131,560 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Cognex by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,190,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $210,210,000 after buying an additional 42,882 shares in the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN raised its position in shares of Cognex by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 3,751,807 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $151,948,000 after buying an additional 305,913 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $146,157,000 after purchasing an additional 175,423 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $114,808,000 after purchasing an additional 1,562,115 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CGNX. HSBC downgraded shares of Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.83.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $32.80 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.76. Cognex Co. has a 1-year low of $32.35 and a 1-year high of $53.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.77 and a beta of 1.40.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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%. As a group, research analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

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

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.