Legal & General Group Plc Purchases 68,483 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 7.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 977,528 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 68,483 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Cognex were worth $35,054,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Cognex in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Cognex by 50.0% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 885 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of Cognex during the third quarter valued at about $40,000. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 129.9% during the fourth quarter. CBIZ Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,007 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 569 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 50.2% during the 4th quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 1,047 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Trading Up 2.1 %

CGNX stock opened at $23.95 on Friday. Cognex Co. has a 1-year low of $22.67 and a 1-year high of $53.13. The stock has a market cap of $4.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.26 and a beta of 1.56. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.43.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a return on equity of 5.65% and a net margin of 11.61%. As a group, analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 27th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.34%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 52.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total value of $222,662.19. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $149,445.18. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CGNX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price target on Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Truist Financial lowered their target price on Cognex from $37.00 to $29.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.17.

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.