Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Position Lessened by Perigon Wealth Management LLC

Perigon Wealth Management LLC decreased its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 6.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,263 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 429 shares during the period. Perigon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $261,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new stake in shares of Cognex in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Cognex in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its stake in Cognex by 71.1% during the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 804 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new stake in Cognex during the 4th quarter valued at $44,000. Finally, UniSuper Management Pty Ltd bought a new stake in Cognex during the 2nd quarter valued at $67,000. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cognex Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX opened at $39.21 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.41 and a beta of 1.49. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.90. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.28 and a 52-week high of $59.51.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $196.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.16 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.86% and a net margin of 13.52%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is 45.46%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CGNX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Cognex in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $47.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group raised Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 19th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.70.

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.