Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Has $2.31 Million Stock Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky reduced its stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 4.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 55,439 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 2,700 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Cognex were worth $2,314,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of CGNX. Contour Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Cognex during the fourth quarter worth about $11,454,000. Brown Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Cognex by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC now owns 5,419,313 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $226,202,000 after acquiring an additional 262,003 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in Cognex during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $12,417,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in Cognex by 237.0% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 53,049 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,214,000 after purchasing an additional 37,306 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,295,729 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $54,084,000 after purchasing an additional 61,890 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on CGNX shares. UBS Group upgraded Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report 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 report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, HSBC upgraded shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $52.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.15.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of CGNX opened at $47.24 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $44.27 and a 200-day moving average of $41.17. Cognex Co. has a 1 year low of $34.28 and a 1 year high of $59.51. The company has a market capitalization of $8.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 81.45 and a beta of 1.45.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Cognex had a net margin of 11.76% and a return on equity of 6.81%. The firm had revenue of $210.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $198.14 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cognex Co. will post 0.45 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th were issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. Cognex’s payout ratio is currently 51.72%.

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.