Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Receives Outperform Rating from Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reissued their outperform rating on shares of Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) in a report released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $74.00 price target on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on CCOI. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Citigroup upped their target price on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Bank of America cut Cogent Communications from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cogent Communications currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $75.86.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of CCOI opened at $69.07 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.41. Cogent Communications has a fifty-two week low of $50.80 and a fifty-two week high of $86.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a current ratio of 2.20 and a quick ratio of 2.20. The business’s 50-day moving average is $66.36 and its 200-day moving average is $64.33.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The technology company reported ($0.68) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.27) by $0.59. The company had revenue of $260.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $264.32 million. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 32.14% and a net margin of 4.26%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.13) EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Cogent Communications will post -4.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.985 per share. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. This represents a $3.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.70%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 22nd. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cogent Communications news, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 2,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total transaction of $134,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 38,600 shares in the company, valued at $2,161,600. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Cogent Communications news, Director Marc Montagner bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $52.61 per share, for a total transaction of $526,100.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 79,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,180,811.48. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 2,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total value of $134,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 38,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,161,600. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 186,350 shares of company stock worth $11,125,201 over the last three months. 11.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cogent Communications

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Cogent Communications in the first quarter worth about $26,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in Cogent Communications by 127.5% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 787 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 441 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd increased its position in Cogent Communications by 17.2% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,880 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $123,000 after purchasing an additional 276 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Cogent Communications in the first quarter worth about $136,000. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in Cogent Communications in the fourth quarter worth about $211,000. 92.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.