Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Shares Acquired by Edgestream Partners L.P.

Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 216.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 38,930 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after acquiring an additional 26,622 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $2,181,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CGNX. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in Cognex by 0.5% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 17,207,485 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $852,631,000 after buying an additional 87,789 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Cognex by 1.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,895,177 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $658,855,000 after buying an additional 180,188 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in Cognex by 0.8% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,778,896 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $445,842,000 after buying an additional 45,764 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in Cognex by 3.0% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,294,480 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $249,423,000 after buying an additional 151,776 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Cognex by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 4,891,408 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $230,434,000 after buying an additional 526,196 shares in the last quarter. 89.86% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on CGNX shares. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Cognex from $45.00 to $40.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 10th. StockNews.com began coverage on Cognex in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. BNP Paribas began coverage on Cognex in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $55.00 price objective on the stock. Stephens dropped their price objective on Cognex from $55.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Cognex from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cognex has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $48.64.

Cognex Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of CGNX opened at $36.94 on Monday. Cognex Co. has a twelve month low of $34.28 and a twelve month high of $59.51. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $39.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $47.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.36 billion, a PE ratio of 40.59 and a beta of 1.53.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.01. Cognex had a return on equity of 8.90% and a net margin of 17.87%. The company had revenue of $197.24 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $190.30 million. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.47 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 17th will be given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.81%. This is an increase from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 16th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.97%.

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.