Schroder Investment Management Group Lowers Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Schroder Investment Management Group reduced its holdings in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 34.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,358 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 3,912 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group’s holdings in Cognex were worth $264,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex during the fourth quarter worth $5,742,000. QSV Equity Investors LLC acquired a new stake in Cognex in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,296,000. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 3,820,394 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $136,999,000 after buying an additional 461,724 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Cognex during the fourth quarter worth about $46,299,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,479,828 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $662,687,000 after buying an additional 296,251 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total value of $222,662.19. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,566 shares in the company, valued at $149,445.18. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on CGNX. UBS Group lowered their price target 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. Truist Financial dropped their target price on Cognex from $37.00 to $29.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.17.

Cognex Trading Down 5.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX opened at $23.27 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.15 and a beta of 1.56. Cognex Co. has a twelve month low of $22.97 and a twelve month high of $53.13. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $32.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.82.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 5.65%. As a group, research analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 27th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.38%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 27th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.46%.

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.