M. Kulyk & Associates LLC Buys 18,555 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

M. Kulyk & Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Free Report) by 23.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 96,136 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after acquiring an additional 18,555 shares during the quarter. M. Kulyk & Associates LLC owned approximately 0.06% of Cognex worth $4,013,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. United Services Automobile Association grew its holdings in Cognex by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 11,682 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock worth $496,000 after acquiring an additional 279 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,760 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $115,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares during the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 78,043 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $3,312,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 13,374 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $568,000 after purchasing an additional 313 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 71.1% in the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 804 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CGNX. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Cognex from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Stephens raised their target price on shares of Cognex from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Cognex from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Truist Financial reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $50.00 price target (up from $47.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Cognex from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price target for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $49.15.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the business's 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 filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cognex Stock Performance

CGNX stock traded up $0.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $47.85. 984,866 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,434,732. The firm has a market cap of $8.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 82.50 and a beta of 1.48. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $42.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.62. Cognex Co. has a 1-year low of $34.28 and a 1-year high of $59.51.

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

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. Cognex's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.72%.

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.

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