Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB Purchases New Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,000 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cognex by 8.1% in the 2nd quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 4,018,539 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $187,907,000 after purchasing an additional 301,916 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 33.8% in the second 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 buying an additional 409,502 shares in the last quarter. Bridges Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex during the second quarter valued at approximately $980,000. Legacy Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Cognex by 15.3% during the second quarter. Legacy Advisors LLC now owns 17,625 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $824,000 after acquiring an additional 2,344 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in 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 acquiring an additional 209,630 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on CGNX shares. Stephens raised Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald started coverage on Cognex in a research report on Thursday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $49.00 target price for the company. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on shares of Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of Cognex from $43.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.92.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other Cognex news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were 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 $1,065,118.24. The trade was a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cognex Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of CGNX stock opened at $35.77 on Monday. 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 $6.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 68.79 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $39.51 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.71.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were issued a $0.08 dividend. 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 yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 61.54%.

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.