Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Makes New $255,000 Investment in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 5,447 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock, valued at approximately $255,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in CGNX. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 94.4% in the 1st quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 589 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 286 shares in the last quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Altfest L J & Co. Inc. now owns 6,279 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $266,000 after acquiring an additional 287 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,760 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $115,000 after acquiring an additional 294 shares in the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 19.3% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,199 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $92,000 after acquiring an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 11.3% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,829 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $179,000 after acquiring an additional 390 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other news, Director Dianne M. Parrotte acquired 2,000 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was bought 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 owns 11,340 shares in the company, valued at $437,950.80. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cognex Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX traded down $0.55 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $39.46. 117,905 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,332,339. Cognex Co. has a 52 week low of $34.28 and a 52 week high of $53.13. The company has a market cap of $6.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.98 and a beta of 1.42. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $45.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.09.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $239.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $240.33 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 4.97% and a net margin of 9.29%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cognex Co. will post 0.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 29th. Investors 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 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 15th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 51.72%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CGNX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. 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. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a report on Monday, August 5th. StockNews.com raised Cognex from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Cognex from $46.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.