Raymond James Financial Inc. Purchases New Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,225,244 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $79,797,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned approximately 1.30% of Cognex as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CGNX. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 122.7% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,834,755 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $114,808,000 after acquiring an additional 1,562,115 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 38.0% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,092,681 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $75,044,000 after acquiring an additional 576,788 shares in the last quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 91.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. now owns 642,737 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $26,031,000 after acquiring an additional 307,018 shares in the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN lifted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 305,913 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB lifted its position in shares of Cognex by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,700,000 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $68,850,000 after acquiring an additional 300,000 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total transaction of $222,662.19. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $149,445.18. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. HSBC downgraded shares of Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday, February 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.83.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $33.97 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.30. Cognex Co. has a twelve month low of $31.06 and a twelve month high of $53.13. The firm has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.69 and a beta of 1.43.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 5.65%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.94%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.46%.

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.