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

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) announced 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 yield of 0.82%.

Cognex has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.6% annually over the last three years. Cognex has a payout ratio of 24.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Cognex to earn $0.64 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 50.0%.

Cognex Stock Down 0.9 %

CGNX stock traded down $0.37 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.25. 1,730,015 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,123,295. Cognex has a 12-month low of $34.98 and a 12-month high of $53.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 75.48 and a beta of 1.40. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.94 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.29.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In related news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 26,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. The trade was a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction on 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. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CGNX shares. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of Cognex to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on Cognex from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Cognex from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Stephens reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.92.

About Cognex

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.