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 0.97%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 27th.

Cognex has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.6% per year over the last three years. Cognex has a payout ratio of 28.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Stock Performance

CGNX opened at $32.84 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $5.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.84 and a beta of 1.40. Cognex has a twelve month low of $32.14 and a twelve month high of $53.13. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $37.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.72.

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

Insider Activity at Cognex

In other Cognex news, CTO Joerg Kuechen sold 2,934 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.75, for a total transaction of $110,758.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CGNX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Cognex from $42.00 to $38.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Cognex from $44.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 13th. Stephens restated an “overweight” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Cognex in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on Cognex from $39.00 to $35.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Cognex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target 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.