Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $1.00

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 7th,Zacks Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of 0.995 per share by the technology company on Friday, December 6th. This represents a $3.98 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99.

Cogent Communications has raised its dividend by an average of 10.7% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Cogent Communications has a payout ratio of -111.6% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Cogent Communications to earn ($3.33) per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $3.94 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of -118.3%.

Cogent Communications Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of CCOI opened at $83.75 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 107.37 and a beta of 0.40. Cogent Communications has a 1 year low of $50.80 and a 1 year high of $86.76. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $77.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $67.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 2.20 and a quick ratio of 2.20.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.34) by $0.01. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 32.14% and a net margin of 4.26%. The company had revenue of $257.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $258.69 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($1.13) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Cogent Communications will post -4.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Cogent Communications news, VP John B. Chang sold 1,400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.67, for a total transaction of $100,338.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 71,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,130,138.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Cogent Communications news, VP John B. Chang sold 1,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.67, for a total transaction of $100,338.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 71,580 shares in the company, valued at $5,130,138.60. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.82, for a total value of $4,369,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,373,038 shares in the company, valued at $318,444,627.16. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 64,870 shares of company stock valued at $4,716,057 over the last ninety days. 11.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on CCOI shares. Bank of America lowered 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. Citigroup raised their price target on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price target on Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $77.14.

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.