Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Stock Holdings Lowered by DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale cut its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 15.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,610,000 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 295,000 shares during the quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale owned about 0.94% of Cognex worth $68,087,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 94.4% during the first quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 589 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 286 shares during the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC boosted its position in Cognex by 1,239.7% during the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 777 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 719 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 303.1% in the first quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 770 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 579 shares in the last quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 71.8% during the fourth quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,295 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 541 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Cognex during the fourth quarter valued at about $56,000. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cognex Price Performance

NASDAQ CGNX traded down $0.86 on Friday, hitting $38.22. 2,322,887 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,376,943. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $47.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.95. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.28 and a 52-week high of $53.13. The company has a market capitalization of $6.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.90 and a beta of 1.42.

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

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be given a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.72%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. Stephens boosted their target price on Cognex from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Cognex from $55.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, HSBC raised Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $52.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $50.00.

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.