William Blair Investment Management LLC Increases Stock Position in Cognex Corporation $CGNX

William Blair Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 15.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 888,275 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 119,188 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $40,239,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cognex by 342.2% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 974,865 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $44,162,000 after purchasing an additional 754,389 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank boosted its stake in Cognex by 188.4% in the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 1,684 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $76,000 after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares during the period. Keystone Investors PTE Ltd. purchased a new position in Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at about $644,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its position in shares of Cognex by 454.9% during the third quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 430,404 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $19,497,000 after buying an additional 352,833 shares during the period. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex in the third quarter worth about $29,385,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Cognex Stock Down 1.7%

Cognex stock opened at $54.40 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.65. Cognex Corporation has a twelve month low of $22.67 and a twelve month high of $59.88. The company has a market capitalization of $9.01 billion, a PE ratio of 81.20 and a beta of 1.53.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.22 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $252.34 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $238.92 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 9.02% and a net margin of 11.51%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.16 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Cognex Corporation will post 0.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 26th will be paid a $0.085 dividend. This represents a $0.34 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 26th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.75%.

Insider Activity at Cognex

In related news, VP Laura Ann Macdonald sold 14,881 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.16, for a total value of $850,597.96. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 2,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $126,437.92. This represents a 87.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.58, for a total value of $230,657.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 16,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $901,618.76. This represents a 20.37% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 196,083 shares of company stock worth $11,419,321 over the last ninety days. 1.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on CGNX. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, February 12th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 13th. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $61.00 target price (up from $54.00) on shares of Cognex in a research report on Friday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Cognex from $50.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.21.

Cognex Profile

Cognex Corporation is a leading provider of machine vision systems, software, sensors and industrial barcode readers used to automate manufacturing, logistics and distribution processes. The company designs and develops vision-based products that help manufacturers and logistics operators inspect, identify and guide parts, assemblies and packaged goods in real time. Its solutions are applied in a broad range of industries, including automotive, electronics, semiconductor, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, and general manufacturing.

The company’s product portfolio includes stand-alone vision systems, vision sensors and deep learning-based software platforms that enable automated inspection, quality control and traceability.