Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Shares Purchased by AIA Group Ltd

AIA Group Ltd boosted its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 36.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 57,839 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,583 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Cognex were worth $2,414,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in Cognex by 16.8% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 453,691 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $18,937,000 after purchasing an additional 65,198 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its holdings in Cognex by 34.1% during the 4th quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 37,280 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,556,000 after purchasing an additional 9,485 shares in the last quarter. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex during the fourth quarter valued at about $703,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of Cognex in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,016,000. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 49.4% in the 4th quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 402,248 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $17,120,000 after buying an additional 132,991 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $38.69 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $40.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $38.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 58.62 and a beta of 1.49. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.28 and a 52-week high of $59.51.

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

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. Cognex’s payout ratio is 45.46%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.