Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC Sells 333,622 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC decreased its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 16.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,643,471 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 333,622 shares during the quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $58,935,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its stake in Cognex by 41.5% in the 4th quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 42,905 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,539,000 after acquiring an additional 12,581 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 27.9% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 127,256 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $4,563,000 after purchasing an additional 27,727 shares in the last quarter. Thomas Story & Son LLC raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Thomas Story & Son LLC now owns 145,732 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $5,226,000 after purchasing an additional 1,805 shares in the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 35.9% during the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 16,096 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $577,000 after purchasing an additional 4,251 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 4th quarter worth approximately $521,000. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CGNX shares. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Cognex from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. One investment 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.92.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX opened at $33.92 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $37.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.22. Cognex Co. has a one year low of $32.50 and a one year high of $53.13. The firm has a market cap of $5.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.23 and a beta of 1.40.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a net margin of 10.10% and a return on equity of 5.28%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Cognex Co. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is 61.54%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 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. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.