Mutual of America Capital Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lessened its position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 106,397 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 5,625 shares during the quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC owned about 0.06% of Cognex worth $4,441,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CGNX. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $78,651,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Cognex by 156.5% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,065,693 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $86,862,000 after buying an additional 1,260,282 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Cognex by 99.5% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,119,386 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $105,015,000 after buying an additional 1,056,834 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $49,564,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cognex by 17.8% during the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,536,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $234,962,000 after buying an additional 837,487 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on CGNX shares. StockNews.com lowered Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, February 19th. UBS Group raised Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Truist Financial started coverage on Cognex in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $47.00 target price on the stock. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $47.70.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total value of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cognex Stock Down 0.7 %

NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $39.96 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.92. The company has a market cap of $6.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.55 and a beta of 1.49. Cognex Co. has a 52 week low of $34.28 and a 52 week high of $59.51.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $196.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.16 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.86% and a net margin of 13.52%. Cognex’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.45%.

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.