Blair William & Co. IL Raises Stock Holdings in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Blair William & Co. IL boosted its holdings in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 11.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 21,180 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 2,107 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Cognex were worth $632,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Centaurus Financial Inc. raised its position in Cognex by 16.0% in the 4th quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 3,267 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $117,000 after buying an additional 450 shares during the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina raised its position in Cognex by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 75,575 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,710,000 after buying an additional 470 shares during the last quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Cognex by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,698 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $230,000 after buying an additional 532 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Cognex by 155.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,062 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 646 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in Cognex by 105.5% in the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,280 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 657 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $40.91 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $33.35 and a 200 day moving average of $31.79. The company has a market cap of $6.87 billion, a PE ratio of 57.62 and a beta of 1.47. Cognex Corporation has a 12-month low of $22.67 and a 12-month high of $44.17.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $249.09 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $246.70 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.65% and a net margin of 13.13%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.23 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 14th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 45.07%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on CGNX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Cognex from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. TD Cowen upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Melius upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Cowen upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Cognex from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.31.

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.