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

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 31st, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th will be given a dividend of 0.075 per share by the scientific and technical instruments company on Thursday, August 29th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 15th.

Cognex has increased its dividend by an average of 8.2% per year over the last three years. Cognex has a dividend payout ratio of 29.7% 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 $0.30 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.5%.

Cognex Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CGNX traded down $0.25 on Wednesday, hitting $38.91. The company had a trading volume of 71,838 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,344,095. Cognex has a 52-week low of $34.28 and a 52-week high of $53.13. The business has a 50 day moving average of $46.14 and a 200 day moving average of $43.02. The company has a market cap of $6.68 billion, a PE ratio of 67.52 and a beta of 1.42.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.03. Cognex had a return on equity of 4.97% and a net margin of 9.29%. The business had revenue of $239.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $240.33 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.32 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Cognex will post 0.46 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on Cognex from $48.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 29th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Cognex from $46.00 to $42.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 5th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on Cognex from $41.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. HSBC upgraded Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $52.00 target price for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, Vertical Research assumed coverage on Cognex in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $58.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.62.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Dianne M. Parrotte purchased 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 7th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $38.62 per share, for a total transaction of $77,240.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 11,340 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $437,950.80. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.