Cognex Declares Very Special Cash Dividend

Cognex Corporation CGNX announced today that the company's Board of Directors declared a “very special” cash dividend of $1.00/share, payable on December 24, 2012 to all shareholders of record at the close of business on December 14, 2012. “Cognex started giving dividends back in 2003, and since that time, we have been reliably paying dividends each and every quarter. We decided to pay dividends back then because the Bush-era tax cuts made giving dividends a rather efficient way of sharing the company's success with our shareholders. However, the company now believes that starting in January, 2013 the federal tax on dividends will be increased substantially. If that occurs, cash dividends will no longer be an effective way of rewarding our shareholders,” said Dr. Robert J. Shillman, Chairman and Founder of Cognex. Dr. Shillman continued, “Nevertheless, we will not let tax policy interfere with our company's policy of sharing our success with our shareholders. Therefore, instead of distributing quarterly dividends for the next eight quarters commencing in 2013, we have decided to reward our shareholders by prepaying, while the tax rate is still low, the present value of our estimate of what those dividends would likely be if the tax remained at the 15% level. We are able to do this because Cognex has a very strong balance sheet with over $400 million in cash and investments and no debt, and because we are confident in our company's future.”