Cogent Inc. shares rose Wednesday after a J.P. Morgan Securities analyst upgraded the stock because he expects the biometric identification systems provider to benefit from several large-scale government contracts to be awarded in the next six months.

Analyst Paul Coster raised his recommendation on shares of Pasadena-based Cogent to “overweight” from “neutral, noting that contract awards were due from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s US-VISIT program, which is providing visa-issuing offices and ports of entry with biometric technology to help officials better verify the identity of people entering the country.

“Continued deployments within US-VISIT as well as several smaller contracts should fill the void until revenue from these large-scale contracts begin,” Coster said in a note to clients. Noting the company has about $450 million in cash and no debt, he raised his price target on shares to $13 from $10.50.

Cogent shares were up 71 cents, or 7 percent, to $11.05 in morning trading on the Nasdaq.