State Street Corp Buys 42,882 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

State Street Corp raised its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 0.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,190,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 42,882 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp’s holdings in Cognex were worth $210,210,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 2.6% in the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 5,230,271 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $211,303,000 after purchasing an additional 131,560 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Cognex by 8.1% during the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,018,539 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $187,907,000 after purchasing an additional 301,916 shares during the period. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 3,445,894 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $161,130,000 after acquiring an additional 49,026 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Cognex by 122.7% during the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,834,755 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $114,808,000 after purchasing an additional 1,562,115 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Cognex by 30.5% in the second quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 2,056,701 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $96,171,000 after buying an additional 480,143 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on CGNX. Stephens raised shares of Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Truist Financial lowered shares of Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $46.00 to $43.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cognex presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.91.

Cognex Stock Performance

CGNX stock opened at $37.71 on Friday. Cognex Co. has a fifty-two week low of $34.79 and a fifty-two week high of $53.13. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $39.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.13. The company has a market cap of $6.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 72.52 and a beta of 1.39.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.85%. This is an increase from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.54%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.