Forge First Asset Management Inc. Invests $1.57 Million in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Forge First Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 43,700 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,567,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 123.1% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 394 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Cognex in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 50.0% in the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 885 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 295 shares in the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cognex in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of Cognex in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CGNX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. UBS Group reduced their target price on Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and issued a $37.00 price objective (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Finally, HSBC cut shares of Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, February 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.83.

Cognex Stock Down 4.4 %

CGNX opened at $32.17 on Wednesday. Cognex Co. has a 12 month low of $31.06 and a 12 month high of $53.13. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $36.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.21. The stock has a market cap of $5.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.74 and a beta of 1.43.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released 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 11.61% and a return on equity of 5.65%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 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. Investors of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.46%.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total value of $222,662.19. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $149,445.18. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Cognex 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.