Cognex Co. (CGNX) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 15th

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of 0.075 per share by the scientific and technical instruments company on Thursday, May 30th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th.

Cognex has increased its dividend by an average of 8.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 9 consecutive years.

Cognex Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CGNX opened at $43.79 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.52 billion, a PE ratio of 66.35 and a beta of 1.48. Cognex has a fifty-two week low of $34.28 and a fifty-two week high of $59.51. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $40.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.89.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.04. Cognex had a net margin of 13.52% and a return on equity of 6.86%. The firm had revenue of $196.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $189.16 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Cognex will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CGNX. UBS Group raised Cognex from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $42.00 to $54.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Stephens lifted their target price on Cognex from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price target on shares of Cognex from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Cognex from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cognex currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.58.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company 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.