Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. Cuts Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 15.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 59,076 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 10,624 shares during the quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $2,118,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Cognex by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $72,262,000 after purchasing an additional 87,790 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in Cognex by 10.0% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 33,657 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,363,000 after buying an additional 3,068 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $463,000. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $790,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were 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. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX opened at $36.99 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $38.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.82. The firm has a market cap of $6.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 71.14 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex Co. has a 1 year low of $34.79 and a 1 year high of $53.13.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.87%. This is an increase from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Cognex’s payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CGNX. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Truist Financial cut their target price on shares of Cognex from $43.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cognex currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.92.

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.