Values First Advisors Inc. Sells 715 Shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Values First Advisors Inc. cut its stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 36,744 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 715 shares during the period. Values First Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $1,534,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new position in shares of Cognex in the first quarter worth approximately $25,000. Natixis bought a new position in shares of Cognex in the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Neo Ivy Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Cognex in the third quarter worth approximately $30,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its position in shares of Cognex by 71.1% in the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 804 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new position in shares of Cognex in the fourth quarter worth approximately $44,000. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cognex Stock Performance

CGNX stock traded down $0.06 on Friday, reaching $42.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 765,495 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,342,108. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.14. Cognex Co. has a 12-month low of $34.28 and a 12-month high of $59.51. The firm has a market cap of $7.28 billion, a PE ratio of 64.27 and a beta of 1.48.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.04. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.86% and a net margin of 13.52%. The company had revenue of $196.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.16 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were paid a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 28th. Cognex’s payout ratio is 45.46%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com lowered Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 19th. Truist Financial assumed coverage on Cognex in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $47.00 target price for the company. Finally, UBS Group raised Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total value of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.