Picton Mahoney Asset Management Takes $5.17 Million Position in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Picton Mahoney Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 114,186 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,171,000. Picton Mahoney Asset Management owned about 0.07% of Cognex at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Quent Capital LLC acquired a new position in Cognex in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. REAP Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cognex during the third quarter worth about $27,000. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 402.2% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 919 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 736 shares during the period. Penserra Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Cognex during the second quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. acquired a new stake in Cognex in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CGNX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Needham & Company LLC boosted their target price on Cognex from $47.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 12th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Cognex from $45.00 to $42.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 18th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $70.00 target price on shares of Cognex in a report on Friday, February 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Cognex in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.21.

Cognex Stock Performance

Cognex stock opened at $53.17 on Thursday. Cognex Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $22.67 and a fifty-two week high of $59.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 79.36 and a beta of 1.46. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $44.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.87.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 11th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $252.34 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.92 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 9.02% and a net margin of 11.51%.The business’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.16 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 26th will be issued a $0.085 dividend. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 26th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is 50.75%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Robert Willett sold 177,052 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total value of $10,338,066.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.58, for a total value of $230,657.00. Following the sale, the director owned 16,222 shares in the company, valued at approximately $901,618.76. This trade represents a 20.37% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 196,083 shares of company stock worth $11,419,321 over the last ninety days. 1.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Cognex

Cognex Corporation is a leading provider of machine vision systems, software, sensors and industrial barcode readers used to automate manufacturing, logistics and distribution processes. The company designs and develops vision-based products that help manufacturers and logistics operators inspect, identify and guide parts, assemblies and packaged goods in real time. Its solutions are applied in a broad range of industries, including automotive, electronics, semiconductor, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, and general manufacturing.

The company’s product portfolio includes stand-alone vision systems, vision sensors and deep learning-based software platforms that enable automated inspection, quality control and traceability.