Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Acquires Shares of 648,671 Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new position in shares of Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 648,671 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $29,385,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CGNX. Quent Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cognex during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. REAP Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Cognex during the third quarter valued at $27,000. First Horizon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex in the 2nd quarter worth about $29,000. Finally, Penserra Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex in the 2nd quarter worth about $29,000. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $63.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $61.00 price target (up from $54.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, February 13th. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Cognex in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Cognex presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.21.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other news, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.58, for a total transaction of $230,657.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 16,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $901,618.76. The trade was a 20.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Laura Ann Macdonald sold 14,881 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.16, for a total transaction of $850,597.96. Following the transaction, the vice president owned 2,212 shares in the company, valued at approximately $126,437.92. This trade represents a 87.06% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 196,083 shares of company stock worth $11,419,321. Company insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Stock Down 1.7%

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX opened at $54.40 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $9.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 81.20 and a beta of 1.53. Cognex Corporation has a twelve month low of $22.67 and a twelve month high of $59.88. The company has a 50 day moving average of $43.41 and a 200 day moving average of $42.66.

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

Cognex Announces Dividend

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

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.