Federated Hermes Inc. Raises Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Free Report) by 16.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 453,691 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after buying an additional 65,198 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. owned approximately 0.26% of Cognex worth $18,937,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Cognex by 17.8% in the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,536,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $234,962,000 after purchasing an additional 837,487 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its position in shares of Cognex by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,842,978 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $118,666,000 after purchasing an additional 31,483 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Cognex by 10.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,082,608 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $88,386,000 after purchasing an additional 192,206 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of Cognex by 156.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,065,693 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $86,862,000 after purchasing an additional 1,260,282 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Cognex by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 2,002,798 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $83,597,000 after purchasing an additional 52,672 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on CGNX shares. Truist Financial started coverage on Cognex in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. They set a "buy" rating and a $47.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. UBS Group raised Cognex from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Cognex from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, February 19th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $47.70.

Cognex Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of CGNX traded up $0.71 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $39.17. The company had a trading volume of 764,584 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,509,099. The firm has a market cap of $6.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.35 and a beta of 1.49. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $40.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $38.84. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.28 and a 52-week high of $59.51.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $196.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $189.16 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.86% and a net margin of 13.52%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.27 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. Cognex's dividend payout ratio is presently 45.46%.

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.