19,514 Shares in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Acquired by Virtu Financial LLC

Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 19,514 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $790,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of CGNX. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Cognex by 19.8% during the 2nd quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,819 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $85,000 after purchasing an additional 301 shares during the period. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. raised its holdings in Cognex by 9.4% during the third quarter. Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. now owns 4,055 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $164,000 after acquiring an additional 349 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its holdings in Cognex by 11.3% during the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,829 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $179,000 after acquiring an additional 390 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 123.1% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 20.1% in the third quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 2,732 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $111,000 after acquiring an additional 457 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CGNX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC decreased 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. Stephens upgraded shares of Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered shares of Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $43.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.91.

Cognex Stock Down 1.7 %

Cognex stock opened at $37.08 on Friday. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.79 and a 52-week high of $53.13. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $39.80 and its 200 day moving average is $42.06. The company has a market cap of $6.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 71.31 and a beta of 1.39.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.86%. This is a boost from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cognex Company 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.