Pinney & Scofield Inc. Purchases Shares of 3,452 Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Pinney & Scofield Inc. purchased a new stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 3,452 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $124,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its stake in Cognex by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 9,301 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $334,000 after purchasing an additional 1,011 shares in the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Cognex in the fourth quarter valued at $267,000. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its stake in Cognex by 35.4% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 25,469 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $913,000 after purchasing an additional 6,656 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 11,194 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $401,000 after buying an additional 985 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 467,267 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $16,756,000 after buying an additional 32,014 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Cognex Stock Performance

Cognex stock opened at $29.72 on Friday. Cognex Co. has a fifty-two week low of $22.67 and a fifty-two week high of $53.13. The stock has a market cap of $4.99 billion, a PE ratio of 48.72 and a beta of 1.45. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.98.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.06%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CGNX. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Cognex from $56.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 2nd. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, April 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Cognex from $33.00 to $29.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 6th. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Cognex from $37.00 to $29.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.17.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total value of $222,662.19. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,566 shares in the company, valued at $149,445.18. The trade was a 59.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.60% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.