Edgestream Partners L.P. Takes Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 42,070 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,509,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CGNX. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $79,797,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in shares of Cognex by 122.7% in the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,834,755 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $114,808,000 after buying an additional 1,562,115 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Cognex by 38.0% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,092,681 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $75,044,000 after buying an additional 576,788 shares in the last quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. increased its position in shares of Cognex by 91.5% in the third quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. now owns 642,737 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $26,031,000 after buying an additional 307,018 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN increased its position in shares of Cognex by 8.9% in the third quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 3,751,807 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $151,948,000 after buying an additional 305,913 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the company’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 $149,445.18. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Stock Performance

NASDAQ CGNX opened at $33.64 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $36.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.15 and a beta of 1.43. Cognex Co. has a fifty-two week low of $31.06 and a fifty-two week high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 5.65% and a net margin of 11.61%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on CGNX. Hsbc Global Res cut Cognex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. HSBC cut 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. UBS Group dropped their price target on Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup dropped their price target on Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.83.

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.