Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Coverage Initiated at UBS Group

UBS Group started coverage on shares of Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) in a report published on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm issued a buy rating and a $102.00 price target on the technology company’s stock.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on CCOI. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Citigroup raised their price target on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.25.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CCOI opened at $79.40 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $78.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $68.17. Cogent Communications has a 1-year low of $50.80 and a 1-year high of $86.76. The firm has a market cap of $3.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 101.79 and a beta of 0.40.

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 the consensus estimate of ($1.34) by $0.01. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 36.31% and a net margin of 3.73%. 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) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Cogent Communications will post -4.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a $0.995 dividend. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. This represents a $3.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 505.13%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Sheryl Lynn Kennedy sold 1,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.58, for a total value of $108,783.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,318 shares in the company, valued at approximately $831,424.44. This represents a 11.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,373,038 shares in the company, valued at $318,444,627.16. This trade represents a 1.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,008,175. 11.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cogent Communications

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 2,739.1% during 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 in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 500.1% during the first quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,051,568 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $68,699,000 after buying an additional 876,326 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 327.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 981,623 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $64,129,000 after buying an additional 752,133 shares during the period. M&G Plc bought a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,942,000. Finally, Senator Investment Group LP boosted its holdings in Cogent Communications by 83.0% during the 1st quarter. Senator Investment Group LP now owns 666,768 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $43,560,000 after acquiring an additional 302,365 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

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.