Teacher Retirement System of Texas Takes Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 32,151 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,153,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Cognex by 5.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $72,262,000 after buying an additional 87,790 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,427,756 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $51,199,000 after purchasing an additional 42,292 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Cognex in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $790,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Cognex by 75.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,231 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TCW Group Inc. lifted its stake in Cognex by 19.8% during the third quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 583,150 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $23,618,000 after purchasing an additional 96,330 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CGNX shares. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. HSBC cut shares of Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on shares of Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.83.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total value 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. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 1.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cognex Trading Down 2.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $30.01 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $34.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.50. Cognex Co. has a twelve month low of $29.58 and a twelve month high of $53.13. The company has a market capitalization of $5.08 billion, a PE ratio of 49.20 and a beta of 1.43.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 research analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.07%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 27th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.46%.

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.