Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the eight brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation, four have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $80.25.

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CCOI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. UBS Group began coverage on shares of Cogent Communications in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $102.00 price objective on the stock.

Insider Activity at Cogent Communications

In other Cogent Communications news, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 4,800 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.61, for a total transaction of $362,928.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 33,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,555,618. The trade was a 12.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Blake Bath sold 6,220 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.69, for a total value of $520,551.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $836,900. This trade represents a 38.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 24,136 shares of company stock valued at $1,939,749 over the last quarter. Insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCOI. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 2,739.1% in the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,035,261 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $58,430,000 after acquiring an additional 998,796 shares during the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 46.2% in the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,537,196 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $86,759,000 after acquiring an additional 485,628 shares in the last quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 18.9% in the second quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 874,174 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $49,338,000 after buying an additional 138,680 shares during the last quarter. AYAL Capital Advisors Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications during the second quarter valued at approximately $6,372,000. Finally, Verition Fund Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 136.5% in the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 145,223 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,025,000 after buying an additional 83,816 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Cogent Communications Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ CCOI opened at $77.07 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $72.74. The company has a market cap of $3.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 98.81 and a beta of 0.39. Cogent Communications has a 52 week low of $50.80 and a 52 week high of $86.76. The company has a quick ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.34) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $257.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $258.69 million. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 36.31% and a net margin of 3.73%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($1.13) EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Cogent Communications will post -4.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a $0.995 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. This is a boost from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. This represents a $3.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.16%. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 510.26%.

Cogent Communications Company Profile

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc, through its subsidiaries, provides high-speed Internet access, private network, and data center colocation space services in North America, Europe, Oceania, South America, and Africa. The company offers on-net Internet access and private network services to law firms, financial services firms, and advertising and marketing firms, as well as heath care providers, educational institutions and other professional services businesses, other Internet service providers, telephone companies, cable television companies, web hosting companies, media service providers, mobile phone operators, content delivery network companies, and commercial content and application service providers.