Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $77.57.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on CCOI shares. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. TheStreet upgraded shares of Cogent Communications from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $81.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cogent Communications from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $74.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th.

Cogent Communications Trading Up 1.3 %

Cogent Communications stock opened at $65.79 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $67.72 and a 200-day moving average of $69.46. Cogent Communications has a one year low of $57.35 and a one year high of $86.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.24, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The company has a market cap of $3.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.39.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.95) by $0.79. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 135.34% and a negative return on equity of 23.66%. The company had revenue of $272.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $275.82 million. On average, equities analysts expect that Cogent Communications will post -3.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.965 dividend. This is a boost from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.96. This represents a $3.86 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 14.43%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cogent Communications

In other news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 26,174 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.21, for a total transaction of $1,680,632.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,653,203 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $298,782,164.63. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.62, for a total transaction of $147,110.40. Following the transaction, the executive now directly owns 54,822 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,200,461.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 26,174 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.21, for a total transaction of $1,680,632.54. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,653,203 shares in the company, valued at $298,782,164.63. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 69,320 shares of company stock valued at $4,669,997 in the last three months. 11.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CCOI. FMR LLC increased its stake in Cogent Communications by 58.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 710,612 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $43,987,000 after acquiring an additional 263,313 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in Cogent Communications by 46.6% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 828,664 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $63,028,000 after acquiring an additional 263,276 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Cogent Communications by 107.2% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 46,822 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,898,000 after acquiring an additional 24,226 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in Cogent Communications by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 630,300 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $47,941,000 after acquiring an additional 41,104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, River Road Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Cogent Communications by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 417,801 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,778,000 after acquiring an additional 36,288 shares during the last quarter. 92.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.