Retirement Systems of Alabama Has $9.91 Million Stock Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Retirement Systems of Alabama lessened its holdings in shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 2.0% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 211,871 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after selling 4,295 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Cognex were worth $9,907,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV boosted its stake in shares of Cognex by 94.4% during the 1st quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 589 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 286 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S boosted its position in Cognex by 303.1% during the first quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 770 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 579 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1,239.7% in the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 777 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 719 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in shares of Cognex by 276.1% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,087 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 798 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 4th quarter worth about $56,000. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Cognex from $55.00 to $46.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Cognex from $46.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 5th. HSBC raised Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on shares of Cognex from $45.00 to $39.00 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.62.

Cognex Stock Up 2.3 %

CGNX opened at $39.69 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.43 and a beta of 1.42. Cognex Co. has a twelve month low of $34.28 and a twelve month high of $53.13. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.14.

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

Cognex Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be paid a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 51.72%.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In other Cognex news, Director Dianne M. Parrotte acquired 2,000 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $38.62 per share, with a total value of $77,240.00. Following the completion of the purchase, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cognex 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.