Shares of Cognex Corp. (CGNX) increased by about 2.5% on Friday after the machine vision products manufacturer announced a special cash dividend of $2 per share.
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Cognex announced that the newly approved special cash dividend will be payable on Dec. 28 to shareholders of record date as of Dec. 14. According to the company, the aggregate amount payable would be approximately $350 million and would be paid through using available cash. Cognex’s dividend yield stands at 0.3%.
The company’s CEO Dr. Robert J. Shillman said, “Cognex has paid a quarterly cash dividend for every quarter starting in 2003. Since that time, our cash and investments balance has grown to over $1 billion, despite years of funding business growth, share repurchases, and dividend increases.” (See CGNX stock analysis on TipRanks).
On Oct. 29, Needham analyst James Ricchiuti reiterated a Hold rating on the stock following the company’s 3Q results on Oct. 28. In a note to investors, Ricchiuti wrote, “While we clearly under-estimated the recovery in CGNX’s business, we believe the stock fairly reflects the improvement in the company’s near-term fundamentals and re-acceleration of top-line growth.”
Overall, the Street is sidelined on the stock. The Hold analyst consensus is based on 2 Holds, 2 Buys and 1 Sell. The average price target stands at $70 and implies downside potential of about 8.4% to current levels. Shares have climbed 36.4% year-to-date.
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