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

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

CCOI has been the subject of a number of research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised 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 started coverage on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Thursday, November 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cogent Communications news, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 4,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.61, for a total value of $362,928.00. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.60, for a total value of $147,072.00. Following the transaction, the executive now directly owns 49,542 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,794,917.20. This represents a 3.73 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 24,136 shares of company stock valued at $1,939,749 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cogent Communications

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. grew its stake in Cogent Communications by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. now owns 41,079 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,119,000 after buying an additional 185 shares during the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Cogent Communications by 72.9% during the third quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 536 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd boosted its holdings in Cogent Communications by 5.5% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 4,984 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $378,000 after acquiring an additional 262 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 204.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 405 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capstone Triton Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 3.1% in the third quarter. Capstone Triton Financial Group LLC now owns 10,401 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $790,000 after purchasing an additional 313 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Cogent Communications Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CCOI opened at $73.13 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $78.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $73.51. Cogent Communications has a 52 week low of $50.80 and a 52 week high of $86.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.03. The company has a market cap of $3.59 billion, a PE ratio of 93.76 and a beta of 0.40.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $258.69 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($1.13) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Cogent Communications will post -4.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd were given a dividend of $0.995 per share. This represents a $3.98 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.44%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 510.26%.

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.