Oak Harvest Investment Services Purchases 14,672 Shares of Cognex Corporation $CGNX

Oak Harvest Investment Services increased its stake in Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) by 17.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 96,735 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,672 shares during the quarter. Oak Harvest Investment Services owned approximately 0.06% of Cognex worth $3,481,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 13.3% in the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 318,984 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $14,450,000 after purchasing an additional 37,405 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 8,101,583 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $292,224,000 after purchasing an additional 76,212 shares during the period. IMC Chicago LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cognex in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $5,761,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 43.9% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,024,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $137,003,000 after purchasing an additional 922,149 shares during the period. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its holdings in shares of Cognex by 203.2% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 266,954 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $12,093,000 after purchasing an additional 178,911 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.12% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Robert Willett sold 177,052 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $58.39, for a total value of $10,338,066.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Angelos Papadimitriou sold 4,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.58, for a total transaction of $230,657.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 16,222 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $901,618.76. This trade represents a 20.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 196,083 shares of company stock worth $11,419,321. Corporate insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Cognex in a report on Monday, December 29th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $70.00 price objective (up from $50.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, February 13th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $63.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, February 13th. DA Davidson set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Cognex in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $57.00.

Cognex Price Performance

CGNX opened at $55.50 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $52.07 and a 200-day moving average price of $44.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 82.84 and a beta of 1.47. Cognex Corporation has a one year low of $22.85 and a one year high of $59.88.

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

Cognex Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 26th were given a $0.085 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 26th. This represents a $0.34 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. Cognex’s payout ratio is 50.75%.

About Cognex

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.