Pathstone Family Office LLC Increases Stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Pathstone Family Office LLC boosted its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX – Get Rating) by 110.6% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 18,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 9,684 shares during the period. Pathstone Family Office LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $779,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. SVB Wealth LLC increased its stake in Cognex by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 27,417 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,137,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares during the period. Sit Investment Associates Inc. grew its position in shares of Cognex by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Sit Investment Associates Inc. now owns 10,350 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $440,000 after buying an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Cognex by 25.8% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,955 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $80,000 after buying an additional 401 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service grew its position in shares of Cognex by 14.6% in the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 3,187 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $136,000 after buying an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning grew its position in shares of Cognex by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 11,592 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $480,000 after buying an additional 417 shares during the last quarter. 91.24% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CGNX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Northcoast Research lowered Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 1st. Morgan Stanley lowered Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $41.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 17th. Cowen dropped their price target on Cognex from $50.00 to $48.00 in a research report on Friday, February 17th. Cowen lowered Cognex from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $55.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 22nd. Finally, Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $45.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a research report on Tuesday, February 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.00.

Cognex Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $47.29 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $47.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.45 and a beta of 1.60. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $40.21 and a 12-month high of $80.30.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.31 by $0.01. Cognex had a return on equity of 16.42% and a net margin of 21.42%. The firm had revenue of $239.43 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $245.09 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.30 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.74 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 3rd will be paid a $0.07 dividend. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 2nd. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.76%.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In other news, Director Patrick Alias sold 4,375 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.53, for a total value of $216,693.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, Director Theodor Krantz sold 912 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.39, for a total transaction of $44,131.68. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 35,500 shares in the company, valued at $1,717,845. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Patrick Alias sold 4,375 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.53, for a total value of $216,693.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 16,287 shares of company stock worth $883,325 over the last quarter. 4.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cognex Profile

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Cognex Corp. engages in the provision of machine vision products and solutions. Its products include vision sensors, vision systems, 3D vision systems, barcode readers, barcode verifiers, vision software, and vision tools. Its solutions include alignment, dimensioning, item detection, edge intelligence, logistics barcode reading systems and tunnels, water identification, and tire inspection.