Tidal Investments LLC Grows Position in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 10.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 33,657 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after buying an additional 3,068 shares during the quarter. Tidal Investments LLC’s holdings in Cognex were worth $1,363,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Cognex by 123.1% in the third quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 714 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 394 shares in the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC purchased a new position in Cognex in the third quarter valued at about $36,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Cognex during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $55,000. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on CGNX. Truist Financial downgraded Cognex from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $43.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Needham & Company LLC cut their price target on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Stephens raised shares of Cognex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Cognex presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.91.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX opened at $35.61 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.63 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.83. The company has a market cap of $6.11 billion, a PE ratio of 68.48 and a beta of 1.39. Cognex Co. has a 12 month low of $34.79 and a 12 month high of $53.13.

Cognex Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 14th. This is an increase from Cognex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.90%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 61.54%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,065,118.24. This represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

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.