R Squared Ltd Acquires Shares of 3,220 Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 3,220 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $115,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Point72 Asset Management L.P. lifted its holdings in Cognex by 122.7% in the third quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,834,755 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $114,808,000 after buying an additional 1,562,115 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Cognex by 116.0% during the 3rd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 789,550 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $31,977,000 after buying an additional 423,950 shares during the period. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 91.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. now owns 642,737 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $26,031,000 after acquiring an additional 307,018 shares during the last quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN boosted its stake in Cognex by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Disciplined Growth Investors Inc. MN now owns 3,751,807 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $151,948,000 after acquiring an additional 305,913 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB grew its holdings in Cognex by 21.4% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,700,000 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $68,850,000 after purchasing an additional 300,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Cognex Stock Performance

CGNX opened at $39.72 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $6.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 76.39 and a beta of 1.40. The business’s fifty day moving average is $38.15 and its 200-day moving average is $40.02. Cognex Co. has a 52-week low of $34.79 and a 52-week high of $53.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was 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 $1,065,118.24. The trade was a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate 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.