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

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given 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 yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th.

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

Cognex Stock Up 1.0 %

NASDAQ CGNX traded up $0.43 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $43.79. 1,411,680 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,470,606. Cognex has a 52-week low of $34.28 and a 52-week high of $59.51. The firm has a market cap of $7.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 66.35 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a 50 day moving average of $40.67 and a two-hundred day moving average of $38.89.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $196.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $189.16 million. Cognex had a return on equity of 6.86% and a net margin of 13.52%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.27 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Cognex will post 0.44 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on CGNX shares. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Cognex from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price objective on shares of Cognex from $46.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Cognex from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. UBS Group raised shares of Cognex from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $42.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Cognex from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, February 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $48.58.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In related news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total value of $274,942.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company's stock.

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.

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