Kopion Asset Management LLC Sells 3,692 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Kopion Asset Management LLC lessened its position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 1.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 190,618 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 3,692 shares during the period. Cognex makes up about 4.8% of Kopion Asset Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Kopion Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $6,836,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of CGNX. Impax Asset Management Group plc boosted its holdings in Cognex by 2.6% during the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 5,230,271 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $211,303,000 after purchasing an additional 131,560 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Cognex by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,190,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $210,210,000 after buying an additional 42,882 shares in the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 3,751,807 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $151,948,000 after buying an additional 305,913 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,608,028 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $146,157,000 after acquiring an additional 175,423 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 122.7% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,834,755 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $114,808,000 after acquiring an additional 1,562,115 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on CGNX. Truist Financial reduced their price target on Cognex from $43.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price objective on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, 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 research note on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.83.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of CGNX stock traded down $0.13 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $38.44. 38,609 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,041,003. Cognex Co. has a 52 week low of $34.79 and a 52 week high of $53.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 73.92 and a beta of 1.40. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $38.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $40.61.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This is a boost from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Cognex’s payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

Insider Activity

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on 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 owned by company insiders.

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.