Proficio Capital Partners LLC Buys New Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 33,888 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,215,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Cognex by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,427,756 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $51,199,000 after purchasing an additional 42,292 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 45.1% during the 4th quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 10,858 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $389,000 after acquiring an additional 3,373 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Cognex during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 885 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 295 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 75.1% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,870 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $102,000 after acquiring an additional 1,231 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total value of $222,662.19. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $149,445.18. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CGNX has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Cognex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. HSBC cut Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $44.83.

Cognex Trading Down 0.2 %

Cognex stock opened at $31.15 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.07 and a beta of 1.43. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $35.73 and a 200-day moving average of $37.83. Cognex Co. has a 52 week low of $30.04 and a 52 week high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a net margin of 11.61% and a return on equity of 5.65%. As a group, equities analysts predict 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 was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 27th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 27th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 52.46%.

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.