Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. Raises Stock Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. increased its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 9.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,055 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 349 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $164,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. William Blair Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 8.1% in the second quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,018,539 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $187,907,000 after acquiring an additional 301,916 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 1.2% in the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 1,309,827 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $61,248,000 after acquiring an additional 15,871 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 33.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,621,629 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $75,828,000 after acquiring an additional 409,502 shares during the last quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cognex during the second quarter valued at $980,000. Finally, Legacy Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 15.3% during the second quarter. Legacy Advisors LLC now owns 17,625 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $824,000 after purchasing an additional 2,344 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CGNX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Stephens raised Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $45.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com raised Cognex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Truist Financial downgraded Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $46.00 to $43.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.91.

Cognex Stock Down 1.2 %

CGNX opened at $38.80 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $40.11 and a 200 day moving average of $42.52. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.79 and a 52-week high of $53.13. The stock has a market cap of $6.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 74.62 and a beta of 1.39.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.82%. This is a boost from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.