Brokerages Set Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) PT at $80.25

Shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eight ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $80.25.

CCOI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America downgraded Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $75.00 to $65.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target 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. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $74.00 price objective on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, KeyCorp upped 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.

Cogent Communications Stock Up 0.2 %

Cogent Communications stock opened at $76.71 on Friday. Cogent Communications has a fifty-two week low of $50.80 and a fifty-two week high of $86.76. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $3.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 98.35 and a beta of 0.39. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $80.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $70.62.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.34) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $257.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $258.69 million. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 3.73% and a negative return on equity of 36.31%. The firm’s revenue was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($1.13) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cogent Communications will post -4.53 EPS for the current year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.995 per share. This represents a $3.98 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.19%. 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 is presently 510.26%.

Insider Activity at Cogent Communications

In other news, VP John B. Chang sold 1,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.67, for a total transaction of $100,338.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 71,580 shares in the company, valued at $5,130,138.60. The trade was a 1.92 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.60, for a total transaction of $147,072.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now owns 49,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,794,917.20. This trade represents a 3.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 20,736 shares of company stock valued at $1,677,159. Insiders own 11.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CCOI. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Cogent Communications by 85.7% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 16,908 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,284,000 after acquiring an additional 7,803 shares during the last quarter. Consolidated Planning Corp bought a new position in shares of Cogent Communications during the third quarter worth approximately $630,000. PEAK6 Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Cogent Communications during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,720,000. Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in Cogent Communications by 56.8% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 56,595 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,297,000 after purchasing an additional 20,510 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Financial Mangement LLC grew its holdings in Cogent Communications by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC now owns 609,821 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $46,298,000 after buying an additional 16,527 shares in the last quarter. 92.45% of the stock is 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.