PNC Financial Services Group Inc. Trims Stock Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. decreased its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 21.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,228 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 2,739 shares during the quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $427,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 78,043 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,312,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its position in Cognex by 37.3% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 220,452 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $9,356,000 after buying an additional 59,859 shares during the period. Teza Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Cognex in the third quarter valued at $208,000. Corton Capital Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Cognex in the third quarter worth about $228,000. Finally, Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 839.0% during the 3rd quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 81,169 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,445,000 after acquiring an additional 72,525 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on CGNX. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $50.00 target price (up previously from $47.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. 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 research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on Cognex from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.15.

Cognex Stock Performance

NASDAQ CGNX opened at $46.76 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $45.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 80.62 and a beta of 1.45. Cognex Co. has a fifty-two week low of $34.28 and a fifty-two week high of $59.51.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.05 EPS for the quarter. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.81% and a net margin of 11.76%. The business had revenue of $210.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $198.14 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.48 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 30th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.64%. Cognex’s dividend 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.