Values First Advisors Inc. Trims Stock Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Values First Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 4.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 41,717 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 2,153 shares during the period. Values First Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $1,496,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 9.4% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 4,055 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $164,000 after acquiring an additional 349 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Cognex by 123.1% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 394 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in Cognex by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 25,685 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $921,000 after purchasing an additional 422 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 20.1% during the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 2,732 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $111,000 after buying an additional 457 shares during the period. Finally, Fiduciary Trust Co grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 9.6% in the third quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co now owns 5,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $220,000 after buying an additional 475 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Cognex Stock Performance

CGNX opened at $39.62 on Wednesday. Cognex Co. has a one year low of $34.98 and a one year high of $53.13. The company has a market cap of $6.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 76.19 and a beta of 1.40. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.29.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other Cognex news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. This trade represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cognex 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.