Inspire Investing LLC Has $401,000 Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Inspire Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 9.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 11,194 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 985 shares during the period. Inspire Investing LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $401,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Whalen Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Cognex during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $318,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 35.4% during the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 25,469 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $913,000 after purchasing an additional 6,656 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 4th quarter worth approximately $267,000. Covea Finance boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 54.7% in the 4th quarter. Covea Finance now owns 73,500 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $2,636,000 after buying an additional 26,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 9,301 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $334,000 after buying an additional 1,011 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Stock Performance

CGNX stock opened at $40.55 on Monday. Cognex Co. has a 52 week low of $34.79 and a 52 week high of $53.13. The company has a market capitalization of $6.95 billion, a PE ratio of 77.98 and a beta of 1.40. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.12 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.19.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 61.54%.

Insider Activity

In other Cognex news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were 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 approximately $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 owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.