Insider Selling: Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) EVP Sells 6,803 Shares of Stock

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total value of $222,662.19. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 4,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $149,445.18. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Cognex Price Performance

Cognex stock opened at $32.81 on Wednesday. Cognex Co. has a 1-year low of $32.14 and a 1-year high of $53.13. The stock has a market cap of $5.57 billion, a PE ratio of 53.79 and a beta of 1.40. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $37.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.67.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 5.65%. On average, research analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on CGNX shares. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 14th. HSBC lowered Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Hsbc Global Res lowered Cognex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $37.00 price objective (down from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, February 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.83.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 5.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $72,262,000 after purchasing an additional 87,790 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cognex during the third quarter worth about $790,000. Premier Fund Managers Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 255.1% during the third quarter. Premier Fund Managers Ltd now owns 24,854 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,001,000 after purchasing an additional 17,854 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 5.9% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,386,973 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $56,172,000 after purchasing an additional 77,146 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 116.0% during the third quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 789,550 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $31,977,000 after purchasing an additional 423,950 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.