Cognex Co. (CGNX) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 27th

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 27th will be paid 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 0.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 27th.

Cognex has increased its dividend payment by an average of 7.6% annually over the last three years. Cognex has a payout ratio of 24.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX opened at $33.92 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $37.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $39.22. The company has a market capitalization of $5.82 billion, a PE ratio of 65.23 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex has a 1-year low of $32.50 and a 1-year high of $53.13.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by ($0.01). Cognex had a net margin of 10.10% and a return on equity of 5.28%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cognex will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cognex news, Director Anthony Sun sold 26,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.03, for a total transaction of $1,040,780.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 26,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,065,118.24. This trade represents a 49.42 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were 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. 1.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.