Raymond James Trust N.A. Increases Stock Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Raymond James Trust N.A. grew its stake in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 5.9% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 15,828 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 883 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A.’s holdings in Cognex were worth $740,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 11.6% during the 2nd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 1,299,175 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $60,749,000 after acquiring an additional 134,833 shares during the last quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 2nd quarter valued at about $17,095,000. Slow Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 9.0% during the 2nd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 71,178 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $3,328,000 after acquiring an additional 5,874 shares during the last quarter. JB Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,380,000. Finally, Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 2nd quarter valued at about $255,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Trading Up 0.6 %

CGNX traded up $0.24 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $39.93. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 409,691 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,331,321. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $45.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.19. Cognex Co. has a 12 month low of $34.28 and a 12 month high of $53.13. The stock has a market cap of $6.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.43 and a beta of 1.42.

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

Cognex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cognex

In other news, Director Dianne M. Parrotte acquired 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $38.62 per share, for a total transaction of $77,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,340 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $437,950.80. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CGNX has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Vertical Research initiated coverage on shares of Cognex in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $58.00 price objective on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $46.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of Cognex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $45.00 to $39.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.62.

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.