Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. Cuts Stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. lowered its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 20.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 130,540 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 33,000 shares during the quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. owned about 0.08% of Cognex worth $4,681,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. increased its position in Cognex by 9.4% in the third quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 4,055 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $164,000 after purchasing an additional 349 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 123.1% in the 3rd quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 394 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 20.1% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 2,732 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $111,000 after buying an additional 457 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 9.6% in the 3rd quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co now owns 5,443 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $220,000 after acquiring an additional 475 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC grew its position in Cognex by 4.0% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 12,491 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $506,000 after acquiring an additional 478 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CGNX. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Cognex from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on shares of Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.92.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. The trade was a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Cognex Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of CGNX stock opened at $40.38 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 77.66 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex Co. has a twelve month low of $34.79 and a twelve month high of $53.13.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This is an increase from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.79%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 61.54%.

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.