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

Shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $80.25.

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CCOI. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Bank of America lowered shares of Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $102.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th.

Cogent Communications Stock Performance

CCOI opened at $75.43 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 96.71 and a beta of 0.39. Cogent Communications has a 1-year low of $50.80 and a 1-year high of $86.76. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $80.98 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $70.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a current ratio of 2.03 and a quick ratio of 2.03.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.34) by $0.01. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 3.73% and a negative return on equity of 36.31%. The business had revenue of $257.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $258.69 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($1.13) earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Cogent Communications will post -4.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were given a dividend of $0.995 per share. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.28%. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 510.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cogent Communications

In other news, Director Blake Bath sold 6,220 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.69, for a total value of $520,551.80. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $836,900. This trade represents a 38.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lewis H. Ferguson sold 846 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.76, for a total transaction of $69,168.96. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 18,354 shares in the company, valued at $1,500,623.04. This represents a 4.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 19,336 shares of company stock valued at $1,576,821. Company insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cogent Communications

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CCOI. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in Cogent Communications by 2,739.1% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,035,261 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $58,430,000 after buying an additional 998,796 shares during the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 46.2% during the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,537,196 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $86,759,000 after purchasing an additional 485,628 shares in the last quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 18.9% during the 2nd quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 874,174 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $49,338,000 after purchasing an additional 138,680 shares in the last quarter. AYAL Capital Advisors Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Cogent Communications during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $6,372,000. Finally, Verition Fund Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 136.5% during the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 145,223 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $11,025,000 after purchasing an additional 83,816 shares in the last quarter. 92.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Cogent Communications

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.