Cwm LLC Sells 546 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Cwm LLC lessened its holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 21.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,951 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 546 shares during the period. Cwm LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $81,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Cognex by 156.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,065,693 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $86,862,000 after purchasing an additional 1,260,282 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Cognex by 17.8% in the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,536,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $234,962,000 after acquiring an additional 837,487 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its holdings in Cognex by 16.0% in the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,811,495 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $119,320,000 after acquiring an additional 387,860 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in Cognex during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $12,417,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,082,608 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $88,386,000 after purchasing an additional 192,206 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CGNX. HSBC upgraded shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $52.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price (up previously from $47.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Tuesday. Stephens boosted their price target on Cognex from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $49.15.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cognex Stock Performance

NASDAQ CGNX opened at $45.90 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.88 billion, a PE ratio of 79.14 and a beta of 1.48. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.28 and a 52-week high of $59.51. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.02.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. Cognex had a net margin of 11.76% and a return on equity of 6.81%. The company had revenue of $196.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.16 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.27 EPS. Cognex’s quarterly revenue was down 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 51.72%.

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.