DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale Sells 295,000 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lessened its stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 15.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,610,000 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 295,000 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale’s holdings in Cognex were worth $68,087,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV increased its position in shares of Cognex by 94.4% during the 1st quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 589 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 286 shares during the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 303.1% in the first quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 770 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 579 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Cognex by 1,239.7% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 777 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Cognex by 71.8% during the fourth quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,295 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 541 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Cognex in the fourth quarter valued at $56,000. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on CGNX shares. Stephens boosted their price objective on shares of Cognex from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Cognex from $48.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Citigroup increased their price target on Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Cognex from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.00.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX traded down $0.86 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $38.22. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,322,887 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,376,943. The company has a market cap of $6.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.90 and a beta of 1.42. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $47.12 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.95. Cognex Co. has a fifty-two week low of $34.28 and a fifty-two week high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $239.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $240.33 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 4.97% and a net margin of 9.29%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.32 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 51.72%.

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.