Covea Finance Grows Stock Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Covea Finance boosted its position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 54.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 73,500 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 26,000 shares during the quarter. Covea Finance’s holdings in Cognex were worth $2,636,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Riverview Trust Co bought a new stake in Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Cognex by 123.1% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 394 shares during the period. Truvestments Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Cognex during the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Cognex during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Clean Yield Group boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 1,686.7% in the 4th quarter. Clean Yield Group now owns 1,072 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 1,012 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cognex Trading Up 3.7 %

NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $38.57 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $6.62 billion, a PE ratio of 74.17 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.61. Cognex Co. has a 12 month low of $34.79 and a 12 month high of $53.13.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a 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 dividend payout ratio is 61.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. This trade represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CGNX. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Cognex from $43.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.83.

Cognex Company 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.