On Friday, shares of Cognex Co. (NASDAQ: CGNX) opened at $50.49, marking a volatile week after several equities research analysts offered contradictory views on its stock. Cognex is a leading scientific and technical instruments company with an $8.72 billion market capitalization. It has been quite a roller-coaster ride for the company as of late.
According to Texas Permanent School Fund’s most recent 13F filing with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), it trimmed its stake in Cognex by 6.8% during the fourth quarter of 2020. This comes after selling off 8,446 shares and leaving them holding only 116,259 shares.
Despite this development, Needham & Company LLC sees great potential in Cognex and raised their price objective on February 17th from $54 to $58 per share with a “buy” rating for Cognex stock. Their optimism did not necessarily translate universally though– Northcoast Research cut its rating from buy to neutral earlier in February.
In fact, according to data from Bloomberg.com, three different analysts have rated the stock as “Sell,” seven categorize it as “Hold,” while two suggest investors “Buy.” Additionally, the consensus target price hovers around $50 per share; slightly less than where current trading places the shares.
Perhaps most intriguingly- Credit Suisse Group revisited its “underperform” rating published in advance of its Q4 earnings report released in February and lifted the ranking up to “neutral.” They also adjusted their target price upward from $41 to $44 per share.
In summary, despite Texas Permanent School Fund trimming its asset stake holdings in early February, there appears to be value available for interested investors depending upon one’s investment objectives – so long as those deciding factors are weighed appropriately against your individual portfolio before rolling any dice on market volatility or asset diversification.
Cognex Sees Institutional Investment Growth as Insiders Sell Shares
Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) has recently seen a number of its institutional investors make changes to their positions in the company. One example is AIA Group Ltd, which increased its stake in Cognex by an impressive 945.1% during Q4 2016. This additional investment means that AIA Group now owns 11,611 shares of Cognex’s scientific and technical instruments stock valued at $547,000.
Raymond James Trust N.A also grew its position in Cognex by 9.4% during Q3 2016; as did IQ EQ FUND MANAGEMENT IRELAND Ltd who raised its position by 23.9%. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd entered the fore by purchasing a new stake worth $172,000 during Q3; while Brinker Capital Investments LLC raised its stake in Cognex by a further 45.8%, putting them at the forefront currently owning over half of company’s entire stock.
Despite the positive contributions of these institutional investors, it seems that some insiders are dumping shares for substantial gains. Director Patrick Alias sold 600 shares in early March for a whopping total transaction of $29,700 – something he was legally required to disclose to the Securities & Exchange Commission, whose filing can be viewed on their website.
This isn’t the first instance where high-profile members have taken advantage of Cognex’s strong performance either; just last month Director Theodor Krantz sold over $44k worth of stock before being required to announce his holdings publicly.
While some might see these sales as red flags warning away potential investors and indicating that insiders don’t have faith in future growth, this is not necessarily true. In fact, when we closely examine this world leader in machine vision technology sector we see very positive results. Sales and earnings figures continue to prove why analysts like Stephens restated what they consider an “equal weight” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in late February.
Cognex’s scientific and technical instruments company posted $0.32 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by $0.01 whilst analysts expect that a total of $0.74 EPS will be announced for 2017, indicating a strong continuation of this upward trend.
Cognex recently paid out its quarterly dividend to investors who owned shares before Friday, March 3rd; delivering yet another positive movement in the right direction, with dividends at an annualized basis appearing encouragingly strong.
It is impossible to say for sure whether institutional investing or insider sales are more reflective of the future worth closing positions on or closing out additional chapters when looking at Cognex’s past performance as well as indications regarding what lies ahead – but currently it appears that stockholders continue to see value and potential in this machine vision company &emdash; despite insiders exiting.
