Cognex Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.08 (NASDAQ:CGNX)

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be given a dividend of 0.08 per share by the scientific and technical instruments company on Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th.

Cognex has raised its dividend by an average of 7.6% annually over the last three years. Cognex has a dividend payout ratio of 28.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Cognex to earn $0.87 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.8%.

Cognex Trading Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $32.84 on Tuesday. Cognex has a 12 month low of $32.14 and a 12 month high of $53.13. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $37.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.72. The stock has a market cap of $5.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.84 and a beta of 1.40.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a return on equity of 5.65% and a net margin of 11.61%. Equities analysts forecast that Cognex will post 0.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total value of $110,758.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Cognex from $58.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of Cognex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Truist Financial reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $37.00 price target (down previously from $43.00) on shares of Cognex in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Stephens reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.83.

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.