UPDATE 1-RESEARCH ALERT-JP Morgan raises Cogent to overweight

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Nov 19 (Reuters) - J.P. Morgan Securities upgraded the stock of biometric identification systems provider Cogent Systems (COGT.O) to "overweight" from "neutral" and said it expects several large-scale projects to come to fruition in the next six months.

"Continued deployments within US-VISIT as well as several smaller contracts should fill the void until revenue from these large-scale contracts begin," analyst Paul Coster said in a note to clients.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's US-VISIT program provides visa-issuing posts and ports of entry with the biometric technology that enables the government to establish and verify the identity of people visiting the United States.

Cogent's position in the homeland security and defense markets also make it relatively less sensitive to the economic downturn, said the analyst, who raised his price target on the stock to $13 from $10.50.

Coster said the company, which has about $450 million in cash with no debt, appears well capitalized for a downturn.

Shares of the company closed at $10.34 Tuesday on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Shrutika Verma in Bangalore; Editing by Amitha Rajan)