Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Acquires 41,378 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,428,351 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 41,378 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $51,221,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 2.6% in the third quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 5,230,271 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $211,303,000 after purchasing an additional 131,560 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,190,365 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $210,210,000 after buying an additional 42,882 shares during the period. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN grew its stake in Cognex by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 3,751,807 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $151,948,000 after buying an additional 305,913 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Cognex by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,608,028 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $146,157,000 after acquiring an additional 175,423 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in Cognex by 122.7% during the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,834,755 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $114,808,000 after acquiring an additional 1,562,115 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Cognex from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Stephens reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.92.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of CGNX stock opened at $39.46 on Tuesday. Cognex Co. has a fifty-two week low of $34.98 and a fifty-two week high of $53.13. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $37.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.35. The company has a market cap of $6.77 billion, a PE ratio of 75.89 and a beta of 1.40.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by 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.