Jennison Associates LLC Trims Stock Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Jennison Associates LLC lessened its stake in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 24.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 667,138 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 213,788 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $27,846,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CGNX. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its stake in Cognex by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 71,112 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $3,018,000 after buying an additional 459 shares in the last quarter. Slow Capital Inc. grew its stake in Cognex by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Slow Capital Inc. now owns 50,334 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $2,136,000 after buying an additional 1,063 shares in the last quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 38.0% in the 3rd quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 24,830 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,054,000 after purchasing an additional 6,840 shares in the last quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Copeland Capital Management LLC now owns 492,787 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $20,914,000 after purchasing an additional 4,943 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 1,696,952 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $72,019,000 after purchasing an additional 167,209 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of CGNX stock opened at $39.53 on Thursday. Cognex Co. has a one year low of $34.28 and a one year high of $59.51. The company’s 50-day moving average is $40.33 and its 200 day moving average is $38.81. The company has a market capitalization of $6.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.89 and a beta of 1.49.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $196.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $189.16 million. Cognex had a net margin of 13.52% and a return on equity of 6.86%. Cognex’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Cognex’s payout ratio is presently 45.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CGNX has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 19th. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $47.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group upgraded shares of Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.70.

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.