Lmcg Investments LLC Sells 29,735 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Lmcg Investments LLC decreased its stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 36.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 51,885 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 29,735 shares during the period. Lmcg Investments LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $1,861,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Cognex by 5.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $72,262,000 after purchasing an additional 87,790 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Cognex by 33.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,621,629 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $75,828,000 after buying an additional 409,502 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in Cognex by 16.3% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,494,312 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $69,874,000 after buying an additional 209,630 shares during the period. Daventry Group LP lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 30.1% during the second quarter. Daventry Group LP now owns 487,873 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $22,813,000 after buying an additional 112,873 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cognex in the third quarter valued at about $790,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on CGNX shares. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Truist Financial boosted their price target on Cognex from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.92.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cognex Stock Up 3.2 %

Cognex stock opened at $41.02 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $7.04 billion, a PE ratio of 78.89 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $34.79 and a 12-month high of $53.13. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $38.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $40.40.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. This is a boost from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

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.