Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Stock Rating Upgraded by UBS Group

UBS Group upgraded shares of Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on CCOI. TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. 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. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $74.00 price objective on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $65.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.25.

Cogent Communications Trading Up 2.0 %

NASDAQ:CCOI opened at $79.40 on Wednesday. Cogent Communications has a one year low of $50.80 and a one year 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 company’s 50-day simple moving average is $78.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $68.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 101.79 and a beta of 0.40.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.34) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $257.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $258.69 million. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 3.73% and a negative return on equity of 36.31%. The business’s revenue was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($1.13) earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Cogent Communications will post -4.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.995 per share. This is a boost from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. This represents a $3.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.01%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 510.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cogent Communications

In other Cogent Communications news, Director Sheryl Lynn Kennedy sold 1,350 shares of the company’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 transaction of $108,783.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 10,318 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $831,424.44. This represents a 11.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Lewis H. Ferguson sold 1,550 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.62, for a total transaction of $112,561.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,288,859.76. This represents a 8.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,008,175. Insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cogent Communications

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 0.5% in the third quarter. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. now owns 41,079 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,119,000 after purchasing an additional 185 shares in the last quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 1.1% in the second quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 19,407 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,095,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 72.9% in the third quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 536 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 5.5% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 4,984 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $378,000 after purchasing an additional 262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 204.5% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 405 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 272 shares during the last quarter. 92.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.