National Bank of Canada FI Purchases 200,345 Shares of Cognex Corporation $CGNX

National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX - Free Report) by 488,646.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 200,386 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after acquiring an additional 200,345 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI owned approximately 0.12% of Cognex worth $5,978,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of CGNX. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in Cognex by 126.2% in the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 4,609,802 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $137,510,000 after acquiring an additional 2,571,457 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 2,256,640 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $80,923,000 after acquiring an additional 25,492 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1.9% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,131,538 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $63,584,000 after acquiring an additional 38,857 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Cognex by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,902,930 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $68,239,000 after acquiring an additional 117,089 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Cognex by 35.7% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,891,602 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $67,834,000 after purchasing an additional 497,341 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company's stock.

Cognex Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of Cognex stock traded up $0.27 during trading on Monday, reaching $42.97. 404,357 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,105,220. Cognex Corporation has a twelve month low of $22.67 and a twelve month high of $44.38. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $34.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.53 and a beta of 1.47.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $249.09 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $246.70 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.65% and a net margin of 13.13%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.23 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 14th. Cognex's payout ratio is 45.07%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CGNX. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Cognex from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday, June 12th. DA Davidson raised their price target on Cognex from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. UBS Group raised their price target on Cognex from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Citigroup reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $37.00 price target (up from $30.00) on shares of Cognex in a report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Melius raised Cognex from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $60.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, July 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $42.31.

Cognex 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.