Independent Advisor Alliance Sells 470 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Independent Advisor Alliance lowered its stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 7.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,811 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 470 shares during the quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance’s holdings in Cognex were worth $243,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. United Services Automobile Association increased its holdings in Cognex by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. United Services Automobile Association now owns 11,682 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $496,000 after buying an additional 279 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,760 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $115,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares during the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 78,043 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,312,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 13,374 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $568,000 after purchasing an additional 313 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 71.1% in the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 804 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CGNX. UBS Group upgraded shares of Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. HSBC upgraded shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $52.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Needham & Company LLC upped their target price on shares of Cognex from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price (up from $47.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $49.15.

Cognex Stock Performance

NASDAQ CGNX opened at $48.27 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $42.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.92. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.28 and a 52-week high of $59.51. The stock has a market cap of $8.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 83.22 and a beta of 1.48.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.62%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.72%.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 1.30% of the company’s stock.

About Cognex

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.