Welch & Forbes LLC Boosts Stock Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Welch & Forbes LLC increased its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 311,329 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,760 shares during the quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC owned about 0.18% of Cognex worth $12,995,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CGNX. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in shares of Cognex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $12,417,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in Cognex in the fourth quarter valued at $2,016,000. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its stake in Cognex by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 1,206,227 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $50,348,000 after purchasing an additional 99,647 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 worth $17,120,000 after purchasing an additional 132,991 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors L.P. increased its position in shares of Cognex by 26.3% during the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P. now owns 227,641 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $9,661,000 after purchasing an additional 47,408 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of CGNX traded up $1.41 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $45.90. The company had a trading volume of 1,955,069 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,471,872. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.28 and a 52-week high of $59.51. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $40.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 78.72 and a beta of 1.48.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $196.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.16 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.81% and a net margin of 11.76%. Cognex’s revenue was down 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.72%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on CGNX. HSBC raised Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $52.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group raised Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 target price (up previously from $47.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Stephens boosted their price objective on Cognex from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.15.

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.