Point72 Hong Kong Ltd Raises Stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Point72 Hong Kong Ltd lifted its position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 6,203.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,543 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 12,344 shares during the quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in Cognex were worth $450,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 24.0% during the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 198,961 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $7,135,000 after buying an additional 38,445 shares in the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 19.1% in the fourth quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 10,044 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $360,000 after acquiring an additional 1,609 shares during the last quarter. Man Group plc boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 27.3% in the fourth quarter. Man Group plc now owns 82,910 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,973,000 after acquiring an additional 17,758 shares during the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $816,000. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 457,636 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $16,411,000 after acquiring an additional 14,396 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cognex Trading Down 0.1%

NASDAQ CGNX opened at $31.58 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $28.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.33. Cognex Co. has a 52 week low of $22.67 and a 52 week high of $53.13. The stock has a market cap of $5.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.77 and a beta of 1.45.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a return on equity of 5.65% and a net margin of 11.61%. On average, research analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.01%. Cognex’s payout ratio is currently 47.06%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CGNX has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of Cognex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Cowen raised shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. HSBC cut shares of Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Cognex from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.17.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total value of $222,662.19. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now 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 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

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.