Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) Stock Price Up 7.6% After Dividend Announcement

Cognex Co. (NASDAQ:CGNX) rose 7.6% during trading on Thursday following a dividend announcement from the company. The stock traded as high as $44.05 and last traded at $44.05. Approximately 213,741 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 1,451,534 shares. The stock had previously closed at $40.94.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Thursday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Cognex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 51.72%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on CGNX. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of Cognex from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Truist Financial began coverage on shares of Cognex in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $47.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com cut Cognex from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 19th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Cognex from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Stephens increased their price target on Cognex from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.58.

Cognex Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $7.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 75.50 and a beta of 1.48. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.89.

Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The scientific and technical instruments company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. Cognex had a net margin of 11.76% and a return on equity of 6.81%. The firm had revenue of $196.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $189.16 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Cognex Co. will post 0.44 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Cognex

In other Cognex news, EVP Carl Gerst sold 6,782 shares of Cognex stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total value of $274,942.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cognex

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Cognex by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,334,064 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $723,524,000 after purchasing an additional 203,149 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Cognex by 17.8% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 5,536,355 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $234,962,000 after buying an additional 837,487 shares during the period. Brown Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Cognex by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Brown Capital Management LLC now owns 5,419,313 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock valued at $226,202,000 after buying an additional 262,003 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its holdings in shares of Cognex by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 2,842,978 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $118,666,000 after acquiring an additional 31,483 shares during the period. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of Cognex by 29.0% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,663,900 shares of the scientific and technical instruments company’s stock worth $113,722,000 after acquiring an additional 598,207 shares in the last quarter. 88.12% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.