Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Shares Purchased by Barclays PLC

Barclays PLC grew its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Free Report) by 78.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 148,060 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after purchasing an additional 64,953 shares during the period. Barclays PLC owned approximately 0.09% of Cognex worth $5,310,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CGNX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Cognex by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,479,828 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $662,687,000 after buying an additional 296,251 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 27.3% in the fourth quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 5,840,117 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $209,427,000 after acquiring an additional 1,253,996 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 3,820,394 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $136,999,000 after purchasing an additional 461,724 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Cognex during the fourth quarter valued at $79,797,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 576,788 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total transaction of $222,662.19. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,566 shares of the company's stock, valued at $149,445.18. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CGNX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Hsbc Global Res cut Cognex from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. HSBC lowered Cognex from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $33.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lowered their price target on shares of Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $42.23.

Cognex Stock Up 2.0 %

CGNX traded up $0.56 during trading on Thursday, reaching $27.86. The company's stock had a trading volume of 891,341 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,519,901. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $28.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.15. The company has a market cap of $4.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.73 and a beta of 1.56. Cognex Co. has a 1 year low of $22.67 and a 1 year high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 EPS 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, equities analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.15%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 27th. Cognex's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.46%.

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.