Peregrine Investment Management Inc. Takes Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Peregrine Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 224,270 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,042,000. Cognex accounts for about 4.7% of Peregrine Investment Management Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Peregrine Investment Management Inc. owned approximately 0.13% of Cognex as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CGNX. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its holdings in Cognex by 41.5% during the 4th quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 42,905 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $1,539,000 after acquiring an additional 12,581 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Cognex by 27.9% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 127,256 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $4,563,000 after purchasing an additional 27,727 shares in the last quarter. Thomas Story & Son LLC raised its position in shares of Cognex by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Thomas Story & Son LLC now owns 145,732 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $5,226,000 after purchasing an additional 1,805 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR raised its position in shares of Cognex by 35.9% during the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 16,096 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $577,000 after purchasing an additional 4,251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Cognex during the 4th quarter valued at $521,000. 88.12% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In other news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. This trade represents a 49.42 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on CGNX shares. Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on shares of Cognex from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, Truist Financial restated a “hold” rating and set a $37.00 target price (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cognex currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.92.

Cognex Stock Down 2.1 %

CGNX stock opened at $33.20 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $5.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.85 and a beta of 1.40. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.00. Cognex Co. has a 52 week low of $32.41 and a 52 week high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a return on equity of 5.28% and a net margin of 10.10%. As a group, analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.96%. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

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.