Interested In Cognex's (NASDAQ:CGNX) Upcoming US$0.085 Dividend? You Have Three Days Left

Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next three days. The ex-dividend date is one business day before a company's record date, which is the date on which the company determines which shareholders are entitled to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is important because any transaction on a stock needs to have been settled before the record date in order to be eligible for a dividend. Thus, you can purchase Cognex's shares before the 13th of November in order to receive the dividend, which the company will pay on the 28th of November.

The company's upcoming dividend is US$0.085 a share, following on from the last 12 months, when the company distributed a total of US$0.34 per share to shareholders. Looking at the last 12 months of distributions, Cognex has a trailing yield of approximately 0.9% on its current stock price of US$39.27. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether Cognex's dividend is reliable and sustainable. So we need to check whether the dividend payments are covered, and if earnings are growing.

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If a company pays out more in dividends than it earned, then the dividend might become unsustainable - hardly an ideal situation. Cognex paid out a comfortable 49% of its profit last year. Yet cash flow is typically more important than profit for assessing dividend sustainability, so we should always check if the company generated enough cash to afford its dividend. It distributed 25% of its free cash flow as dividends, a comfortable payout level for most companies.

It's positive to see that Cognex's dividend is covered by both profits and cash flow, since this is generally a sign that the dividend is sustainable, and a lower payout ratio usually suggests a greater margin of safety before the dividend gets cut.

See our latest analysis for Cognex

Click here to see the company's payout ratio, plus analyst estimates of its future dividends.NasdaqGS:CGNX Historic Dividend November 9th 2025

Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?

When earnings decline, dividend companies become much harder to analyse and own safely. If business enters a downturn and the dividend is cut, the company could see its value fall precipitously. With that in mind, we're discomforted by Cognex's 11% per annum decline in earnings in the past five years. Ultimately, when earnings per share decline, the size of the pie from which dividends can be paid, shrinks.

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Many investors will assess a company's dividend performance by evaluating how much the dividend payments have changed over time. Cognex has delivered an average of 9.3% per year annual increase in its dividend, based on the past 10 years of dividend payments.

To Sum It Up

Is Cognex an attractive dividend stock, or better left on the shelf? Earnings per share are down meaningfully, although at least the company is paying out a low and conservative percentage of both its earnings and cash flow. It's definitely not great to see earnings falling, but at least there may be some buffer before the dividend needs to be cut. Overall, it's hard to get excited about Cognex from a dividend perspective.

Wondering what the future holds for Cognex? See what the 20 analysts we track are forecasting, with this visualisation of its historical and future estimated earnings and cash flow

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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