Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Brokerages

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI - Get Free Report) has earned a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from the five brokerages that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $46.60.

CCOI has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Cogent Communications from an "underweight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $45.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, August 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Cogent Communications in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating and a $40.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and issued a $40.00 target price (down previously from $74.00) on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Citigroup lowered Cogent Communications from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $67.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th.

Insider Activity at Cogent Communications

In related news, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 2,400 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total value of $88,776.00. Following the sale, the vice president owned 36,200 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,339,038. This represents a 6.22% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sheryl Lynn Kennedy sold 2,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.35, for a total value of $72,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 10,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $364,117.95. The trade was a 16.64% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,663,978 shares of company stock valued at $82,687,283. 11.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 13.3% during the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,279,440 shares of the technology company's stock worth $109,892,000 after purchasing an additional 267,143 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,788,235 shares of the technology company's stock worth $86,211,000 after purchasing an additional 13,510 shares during the period. Magnolia Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Cogent Communications during the 2nd quarter worth $52,704,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,060,367 shares of the technology company's stock worth $51,127,000 after purchasing an additional 20,055 shares during the period. Finally, MIG Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. MIG Capital LLC now owns 1,029,237 shares of the technology company's stock worth $49,620,000 after purchasing an additional 66,203 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% of the company's stock.

Cogent Communications Stock Performance

CCOI opened at $37.92 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.86 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.35 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 49.06, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 2.31. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $40.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.68. Cogent Communications has a 1-year low of $29.61 and a 1-year high of $86.76.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The technology company reported ($1.21) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.93) by ($0.28). The firm had revenue of $246.25 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $247.79 million. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 117.56% and a negative net margin of 21.57%.The business's revenue was down 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.68) EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Cogent Communications will post -4.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Thursday, August 7th that authorizes the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire up to 4.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st were paid a $1.015 dividend. This represents a $4.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 10.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 21st. This is an increase from Cogent Communications's previous quarterly dividend of $1.01. Cogent Communications's dividend payout ratio is currently -89.43%.

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.

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