Brokerages Set Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Target Price at $77.14

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

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $102.00 target price for the company. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $74.00 price target on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. 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 research note on Wednesday, August 21st.

Insider Transactions at Cogent Communications

In related news, Director Sheryl Lynn Kennedy sold 1,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.58, for a total value of $108,783.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,318 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $831,424.44. This trade represents a 11.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 directly owns 4,373,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $318,444,627.16. This represents a 1.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,008,175. Corporate insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cogent Communications

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

Cogent Communications Stock Up 2.0 %

CCOI stock opened at $79.40 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a current ratio of 2.03 and a quick ratio of 2.03. The company has a 50-day moving average of $78.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $68.12. Cogent Communications has a 52-week low of $50.80 and a 52-week high of $86.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 101.79 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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.34) by $0.01. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 3.73% and a negative return on equity of 36.31%. The business had revenue of $257.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $258.69 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($1.13) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cogent Communications will post -4.54 EPS for the current year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.995 per share. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.98 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.01%. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 505.13%.

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.