New York Life Investment Management LLC Buys New Stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

New York Life Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 19,576 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock, valued at approximately $817,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings 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 worth $86,862,000 after purchasing an additional 1,260,282 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cognex by 17.8% during the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,536,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $234,962,000 after acquiring an additional 837,487 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its position in shares of Cognex by 16.0% during the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,811,495 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $119,320,000 after acquiring an additional 387,860 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Cognex during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $12,417,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings 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 during the period. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on CGNX. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on Cognex from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. HSBC raised shares of Cognex from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $52.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday. UBS Group raised shares of 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 report on Tuesday, March 19th. StockNews.com lowered Cognex from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Monday, February 19th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $49.15.

Cognex Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of CGNX stock traded up $0.18 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $46.50. 792,936 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,462,283. Cognex Co. has a 1 year low of $34.28 and a 1 year high of $59.51. The stock has a market cap of $7.98 billion, a PE ratio of 80.02 and a beta of 1.48. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $41.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.07.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 6.81% and a net margin of 11.76%. The firm's revenue was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.27 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.