Cwm LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Cwm LLC raised its stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 50.4% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 85,552 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 28,653 shares during the quarter. Cwm LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $4,000,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of CGNX. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Cognex by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,522,549 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $743,307,000 after acquiring an additional 188,485 shares during the period. Brown Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cognex by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC now owns 5,419,313 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $226,202,000 after purchasing an additional 262,003 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 41.4% in the 1st quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 3,716,623 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $157,659,000 after buying an additional 1,088,095 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its position in shares of Cognex by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,842,978 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $118,666,000 after buying an additional 31,483 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Cognex by 29.0% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,663,900 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $113,722,000 after purchasing an additional 598,207 shares during the period. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cognex Stock Down 1.9 %

NASDAQ:CGNX traded down $0.72 on Wednesday, hitting $37.35. The stock had a trading volume of 1,677,348 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,361,544. The stock has a market cap of $6.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.40 and a beta of 1.42. Cognex Co. has a 1-year low of $34.28 and a 1-year high of $53.13. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $46.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.98.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $239.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $240.33 million. Cognex had a net margin of 9.29% and a return on equity of 4.97%. The business’s revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.32 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Cognex Co. will post 0.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.80%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 51.72%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on CGNX. Vertical Research started coverage on Cognex in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $58.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Needham & Company LLC raised their price objective on shares of Cognex from $48.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Cognex from $46.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Finally, DA Davidson reduced their price target on Cognex from $41.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.36.

Cognex Company 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.