AIA Group Ltd Has $3.65 Million Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

AIA Group Ltd increased its position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 90,122 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,284 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd owned about 0.05% of Cognex worth $3,650,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1.1% during the 1st 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 in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 153.6% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 134,516 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $5,706,000 after purchasing an additional 81,467 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 13.4% during the 1st quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 209,091 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $8,870,000 after purchasing an additional 24,675 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co increased its position in Cognex by 362.6% during the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 508,724 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $21,623,000 after purchasing an additional 398,746 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Cognex by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 2,154,625 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $91,399,000 after purchasing an additional 53,267 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, CFO Dennis Fehr purchased 6,570 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $38.04 per share, for a total transaction of $249,922.80. Following the acquisition, the chief financial officer now owns 6,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $249,922.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. DA Davidson lowered their price objective on Cognex from $41.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Truist Financial downgraded shares of Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $43.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Stephens raised shares of Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Cognex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cognex has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.91.

Cognex Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of CGNX opened at $43.05 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $42.99. Cognex Co. has a 12 month low of $34.79 and a 12 month high of $53.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 82.79 and a beta of 1.40.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. This is a boost from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 57.69%.

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.