Van ECK Associates Corp Has $1.96 Million Stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 99.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 46,877 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 23,353 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Cognex were worth $1,957,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 156.5% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,065,693 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $86,862,000 after purchasing an additional 1,260,282 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 17.8% during the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,536,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $234,962,000 after buying an additional 837,487 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 16.0% in the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,811,495 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $119,320,000 after acquiring an additional 387,860 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in shares of Cognex in the 4th quarter valued at about $12,417,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Cognex by 10.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,082,608 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $88,386,000 after acquiring an additional 192,206 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on CGNX. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on Cognex from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Cognex from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Cognex from $36.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Monday. Stephens increased their price target on shares of Cognex from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $49.15.

Cognex Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $46.32 on Thursday. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $34.28 and a 12-month high of $59.51. The business has a 50 day moving average of $41.10 and a 200-day moving average of $39.07. The stock has a market cap of $7.95 billion, a PE ratio of 79.86 and a beta of 1.48.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.81% and a net margin of 11.76%. The business had revenue of $196.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.16 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total value of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.