Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Stock Holdings Cut by Jennison Associates LLC

Jennison Associates LLC reduced its position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 24.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 667,138 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 213,788 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC owned about 0.39% of Cognex worth $27,846,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 71.1% in the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 804 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $34,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares in the last quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 71.8% in the fourth quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,295 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 541 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 18.8% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 2,859 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $119,000 after purchasing an additional 452 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teza Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex in the third quarter valued at $208,000. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group upgraded Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. StockNews.com lowered Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 19th. Truist Financial assumed coverage on Cognex in a report on Thursday, March 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $47.00 target price for the company. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.70.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $39.53 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $6.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.89 and a beta of 1.49. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $40.33 and its 200-day moving average is $38.81. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.28 and a 52-week high of $59.51.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. Cognex had a net margin of 13.52% and a return on equity of 6.86%. The business had revenue of $196.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $189.16 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is 45.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.