Bank of New York Mellon Corp Has $75.04 Million Stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 38.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,092,681 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 576,788 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 1.22% of Cognex worth $75,044,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of CGNX. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its holdings in Cognex by 14.6% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 45,500 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,632,000 after purchasing an additional 5,800 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC grew its holdings in Cognex by 653.6% during the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 59,785 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $2,144,000 after purchasing an additional 51,852 shares during the period. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its holdings in Cognex by 30.8% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,346 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Cognex by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 5,616 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $201,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. grew its holdings in Cognex by 50.2% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 1,047 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total transaction of $222,662.19. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $149,445.18. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on CGNX shares. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on shares of Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.83.

Cognex Stock Down 2.8 %

Shares of CGNX stock opened at $31.87 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.50. The firm has a market cap of $5.41 billion, a PE ratio of 52.25 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex Co. has a 12 month low of $31.71 and a 12 month high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 EPS 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%. On average, equities analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.46%.

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.