Creative Planning Has $888,000 Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Creative Planning grew its position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 21,919 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 512 shares during the period. Creative Planning’s holdings in Cognex were worth $888,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,522,549 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $743,307,000 after buying an additional 188,485 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 32.8% during the 2nd 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 buying an additional 1,259,116 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 8.1% during the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,018,539 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $187,907,000 after buying an additional 301,916 shares during the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 3,445,894 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $161,130,000 after buying an additional 49,026 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 29.0% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,663,900 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $113,722,000 after buying an additional 598,207 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cognex Trading Up 0.4 %

CGNX opened at $40.41 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $6.93 billion, a PE ratio of 76.21 and a beta of 1.41. Cognex Co. has a 1 year low of $34.79 and a 1 year high of $53.13. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $39.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.91.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by $0.03. Cognex had a return on equity of 5.34% and a net margin of 10.10%. The firm had revenue of $234.74 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $229.86 million. Equities analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. This is a boost from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 14th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is 61.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other Cognex 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, with a total value of $249,922.80. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 6,570 shares in the company, valued at $249,922.80. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Cognex 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, with a total value of $249,922.80. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now owns 6,570 shares in the company, valued at $249,922.80. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Dianne M. Parrotte purchased 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $437,950.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on CGNX. Stephens upgraded Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Truist Financial reduced their target price on Cognex from $55.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. DA Davidson dropped their price target on Cognex from $41.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Cognex from $45.00 to $39.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Vertical Research initiated coverage on Cognex in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $58.00 price target on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Cognex currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.17.

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.