Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Shares Purchased by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 5.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 87,790 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned about 1.04% of Cognex worth $72,262,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its position in Cognex by 122.7% in the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,834,755 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $114,808,000 after acquiring an additional 1,562,115 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its position in shares of Cognex by 32.8% during the second quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 5,098,711 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $237,812,000 after acquiring an additional 1,259,116 shares during the last quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 116.0% in the 3rd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 789,550 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $31,977,000 after acquiring an additional 423,950 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 33.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,621,629 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $75,828,000 after purchasing an additional 409,502 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Cognex by 26.8% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,746,783 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $81,680,000 after purchasing an additional 369,442 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CGNX has been the topic of several research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Cognex from $43.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.92.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cognex news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,065,118.24. This trade represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cognex Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $36.25 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.16. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $34.79 and a 12-month high of $53.13. The stock has a market cap of $6.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.71 and a beta of 1.39.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This is a boost from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.88%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is 61.54%.

Cognex Company 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.