JPMorgan Chase & Co. Grows Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 5.2% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 87,790 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $72,262,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CGNX. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 122.7% during the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,834,755 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $114,808,000 after acquiring an additional 1,562,115 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its stake 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 worth $237,812,000 after buying an additional 1,259,116 shares during the last quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC grew its stake in 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 valued at $31,977,000 after acquiring an additional 423,950 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 409,502 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Trading Up 1.5 %

CGNX stock opened at $36.25 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $38.83 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.16. The company has a market cap of $6.22 billion, a PE ratio of 69.71 and a beta of 1.39. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $34.79 and a 12-month high of $53.13.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 positive change from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.88%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 61.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. This trade represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was 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. 1.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.