Amalgamated Bank Reduces Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Amalgamated Bank lowered its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 7.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 86,901 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 6,709 shares during the quarter. Amalgamated Bank owned about 0.05% of Cognex worth $4,063,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 23.0% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 903,300 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $37,708,000 after acquiring an additional 168,692 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Cognex in the fourth quarter worth $58,641,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,578 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $316,000 after purchasing an additional 1,114 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 203.0% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 16,960 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $708,000 after purchasing an additional 11,362 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 38.1% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 15,262 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $637,000 after purchasing an additional 4,209 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on shares of Cognex from $48.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Cognex from $46.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Vertical Research started coverage on Cognex in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $58.00 price target for the company. DA Davidson reduced their price objective on Cognex from $41.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Cognex from $45.00 to $39.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $49.62.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of CGNX stock opened at $39.74 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $41.86 and its 200 day moving average is $43.25. Cognex Co. has a 1-year low of $34.28 and a 1-year high of $53.13. The company has a market cap of $6.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.52 and a beta of 1.41.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.03. Cognex had a net margin of 9.29% and a return on equity of 4.97%. The business had revenue of $239.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $240.33 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.32 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. Cognex’s payout ratio is presently 51.72%.

Insider Activity

In other Cognex news, Director Dianne M. Parrotte bought 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $38.62 per share, for a total transaction of $77,240.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 11,340 shares in the company, valued at $437,950.80. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Dennis Fehr acquired 6,570 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $38.04 per share, for a total transaction of $249,922.80. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 6,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $249,922.80. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Dianne M. Parrotte acquired 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $38.62 per share, for a total transaction of $77,240.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 11,340 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $437,950.80. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 1.10% 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.