Whalen Wealth Management Inc. Takes Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Whalen Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 8,855 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $318,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Cognex by 5.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,784,239 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $72,262,000 after purchasing an additional 87,790 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Cognex by 33.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,621,629 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $75,828,000 after purchasing an additional 409,502 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Cognex by 16.3% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,494,312 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $69,874,000 after purchasing an additional 209,630 shares during the last quarter. Daventry Group LP raised its holdings in Cognex by 30.1% in the 2nd quarter. Daventry Group LP now owns 487,873 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $22,813,000 after buying an additional 112,873 shares during the period. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in Cognex in the third quarter valued at about $790,000. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cognex Trading Down 1.6 %

NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $40.38 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.93 billion, a PE ratio of 77.66 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex Co. has a 52 week low of $34.79 and a 52 week high of $53.13. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $38.10 and a 200-day moving average of $40.35.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This is a positive change from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on CGNX shares. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Cognex from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Needham & Company LLC decreased their price objective on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cognex has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.92.

Insider Activity

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total value of $1,040,780.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. The trade was a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.