Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Shares Sold by ProShare Advisors LLC

ProShare Advisors LLC reduced its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 8.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 190,660 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 18,431 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC owned about 0.11% of Cognex worth $8,915,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its holdings in Cognex by 94.4% during the first quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 589 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 286 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 1,239.7% during the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 777 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 719 shares in the last quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 303.1% in the 1st quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 770 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 579 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 276.1% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,087 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 798 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in Cognex by 43.2% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,704 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 514 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on CGNX shares. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research report on Monday, August 5th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Cognex from $46.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cognex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on Cognex from $48.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their target price on Cognex from $55.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.62.

Cognex Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $39.60 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.28 and a beta of 1.41. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.23. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.28 and a 52-week high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its 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 return on equity of 4.97% and a net margin of 9.29%. The firm 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 business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 51.72%.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other news, CFO Dennis Fehr purchased 6,570 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The stock was bought 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 directly owns 6,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $249,922.80. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Dennis Fehr acquired 6,570 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were bought at an average price of $38.04 per share, for a total transaction of $249,922.80. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now directly owns 6,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $249,922.80. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Dianne M. Parrotte bought 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $38.62 per share, with a total value of $77,240.00. Following the transaction, 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. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.