Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Grows Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Free Report) by 35.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,891,602 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock after purchasing an additional 497,341 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD owned about 1.10% of Cognex worth $67,834,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in Cognex by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $72,262,000 after buying an additional 87,790 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Cognex by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,427,756 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $51,199,000 after purchasing an additional 42,292 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at $790,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in Cognex by 75.1% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,870 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $102,000 after buying an additional 1,231 shares during the period. Finally, Swiss National Bank raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 337,300 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company's stock valued at $12,096,000 after buying an additional 2,200 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. HSBC downgraded shares of Cognex from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $33.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, February 21st. Truist Financial dropped their price target on shares of Cognex from $37.00 to $29.00 and set a "hold" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Stephens reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price target on Cognex from $37.00 to $26.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $41.38.

Cognex Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $27.83. The company had a trading volume of 1,775,830 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,528,731. Cognex Co. has a 1-year low of $22.67 and a 1-year high of $53.13. The stock has a market cap of $4.71 billion, a PE ratio of 45.62 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $28.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.06.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a return on equity of 5.65% and a net margin of 11.61%. On average, research analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.15%. Cognex's dividend payout ratio is currently 52.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total value of $222,662.19. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 4,566 shares of the company's stock, valued at $149,445.18. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.60% of the company's stock.

About Cognex

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.