Slow Capital Inc. Sells 780 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Slow Capital Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 49,554 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 780 shares during the period. Slow Capital Inc.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $2,068,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 0.5% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 17,207,485 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $852,631,000 after purchasing an additional 87,789 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,895,177 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $658,855,000 after purchasing an additional 180,188 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 0.8% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,778,896 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $445,842,000 after purchasing an additional 45,764 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 worth $234,962,000 after purchasing an additional 837,487 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,294,480 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $249,423,000 after purchasing an additional 151,776 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX traded down $0.30 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $39.32. 252,749 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,531,935. Cognex Co. has a 1 year low of $34.28 and a 1 year high of $59.51. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $39.89 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.65 and a beta of 1.49.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.86% and a net margin of 13.52%. The business had revenue of $196.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.16 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.27 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 45.46%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup lifted their target price on Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Truist Financial assumed coverage on Cognex in a report on Thursday, March 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $47.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com cut Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 19th. Finally, UBS Group raised Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.70.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total value of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.