Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Stock Holdings Reduced by Riverbridge Partners LLC

Riverbridge Partners LLC cut its position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 10.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,333,622 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 155,723 shares during the period. Riverbridge Partners LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $47,824,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Cognex by 5.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $72,262,000 after acquiring an additional 87,790 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings 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 valued at $75,828,000 after purchasing an additional 409,502 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 16.3% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,494,312 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $69,874,000 after purchasing an additional 209,630 shares during the last quarter. Daventry Group LP boosted its holdings in Cognex by 30.1% in the second quarter. Daventry Group LP now owns 487,873 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $22,813,000 after purchasing an additional 112,873 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Cognex during the third quarter worth $790,000. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $40.38 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $6.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 77.66 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex Co. has a twelve month low of $34.79 and a twelve month high of $53.13. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.35.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This is an increase from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Cognex’s payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In other news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CGNX has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Truist Financial raised their price objective on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cognex presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.92.

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.