Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) Shares Purchased by SRS Capital Advisors Inc.

SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 50.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 885 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 295 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $32,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in Cognex by 17.5% in the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 18,813 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $762,000 after acquiring an additional 2,799 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Cognex by 39.5% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 99,529 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,858,000 after acquiring an additional 28,161 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its holdings in Cognex by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 5,230,271 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $211,303,000 after acquiring an additional 131,560 shares during the last quarter. AIA Group Ltd raised its holdings in Cognex by 12.9% in the 3rd quarter. AIA Group Ltd now owns 90,122 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,650,000 after acquiring an additional 10,284 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thomas Story & Son LLC raised its holdings in Cognex by 16.1% in the 3rd quarter. Thomas Story & Son LLC now owns 143,927 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $5,829,000 after acquiring an additional 19,915 shares during the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cognex Trading Up 4.1 %

Shares of Cognex stock opened at $33.97 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $36.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.32. Cognex Co. has a twelve month low of $31.06 and a twelve month high of $53.13. The stock has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.69 and a beta of 1.40.

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

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date 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 52.46%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CGNX has been the subject of several analyst reports. UBS Group cut their price target on Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. HSBC downgraded Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.83.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cognex news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,803 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.73, for a total transaction of $222,662.19. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 4,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $149,445.18. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.