Natixis Advisors LLC Has $898,000 Stock Position in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Natixis Advisors LLC decreased its stake in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 34.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 30,118 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 15,585 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $898,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in Cognex by 37.0% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 47,381 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $1,699,000 after purchasing an additional 12,797 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Cognex by 17.1% during the 4th quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 568,141 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $20,374,000 after buying an additional 82,885 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in shares of Cognex by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 98,537 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,534,000 after buying an additional 12,488 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 19.8% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 87,461 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,401,000 after purchasing an additional 14,454 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 7.2% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 24,633 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $883,000 after purchasing an additional 1,657 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Stock Down 1.1%

NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $40.91 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.62 and a beta of 1.47. Cognex Corporation has a twelve month low of $22.67 and a twelve month high of $44.17. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $33.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.85.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $249.09 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $246.70 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.65% and a net margin of 13.13%. The firm’s revenue was up 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.23 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 14th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Cognex’s payout ratio is presently 45.07%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on CGNX shares. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Cognex from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. TD Cowen upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. DA Davidson lifted their price objective on Cognex from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Cowen upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, KeyCorp upgraded Cognex from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, August 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.31.

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.