Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seven research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have issued a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $75.86.

CCOI has been the subject of several analyst reports. Citigroup increased their price objective on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. TD Cowen increased their price target on Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $74.00 price objective on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $75.00 to $65.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cogent Communications

In other news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.82, for a total transaction of $4,369,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,373,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $318,444,627.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Cogent Communications news, VP John B. Chang sold 1,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were 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 $5,130,138.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.82, for a total transaction of $4,369,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,373,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $318,444,627.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 64,870 shares of company stock worth $4,716,057 over the last three months. 11.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 218,174 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $16,594,000 after acquiring an additional 24,185 shares during the period. PEAK6 Investments LLC boosted its stake in Cogent Communications by 175.1% in the 4th quarter. PEAK6 Investments LLC now owns 37,599 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,860,000 after purchasing an additional 23,934 shares during the period. M&G Plc purchased a new position in Cogent Communications during the 1st quarter valued at about $27,942,000. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 327.7% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 981,623 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $64,129,000 after buying an additional 752,133 shares during the period. Finally, Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 289.6% in the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 10,020 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $566,000 after buying an additional 7,448 shares in the last quarter. 92.45% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of CCOI opened at $75.92 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $3.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.40. The business’s fifty day moving average is $71.06 and its 200 day moving average is $64.12. The company has a quick ratio of 2.20, a current ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. Cogent Communications has a 12-month low of $50.80 and a 12-month high of $86.00.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The technology company reported ($0.68) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.27) by $0.59. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 4.26% and a negative return on equity of 32.14%. The firm had revenue of $260.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $264.32 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.13) earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cogent Communications will post -4.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.985 per share. This represents a $3.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.19%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.61%.

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.