Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI - Get Free Report) released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The technology company reported ($1.09) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.05) by ($0.04), Zacks reports. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 36.31% and a net margin of 3.73%. The company had revenue of $247.05 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $250.81 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($1.38) EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 7.2% on a year-over-year basis.

Cogent Communications Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of Cogent Communications stock traded down $0.34 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $50.53. The stock had a trading volume of 116,282 shares, compared to its average volume of 470,599. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $57.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $70.91. Cogent Communications has a 12-month low of $45.00 and a 12-month high of $86.76. The company has a quick ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87. The firm has a market cap of $2.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.69 and a beta of 0.76.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 22nd will be paid a $1.01 dividend. This is a boost from Cogent Communications's previous quarterly dividend of $1.01. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 22nd. This represents a $4.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.99%. Cogent Communications's dividend payout ratio is -100.75%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $71.00 to $62.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $102.00 to $75.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Cogent Communications to a "sell" rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $75.75.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Lewis H. Ferguson sold 956 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.36, for a total value of $66,308.16. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 18,652 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,293,702.72. This represents a 4.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Thaddeus Gerard Weed sold 4,900 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.06, for a total transaction of $353,094.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 103,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at $7,422,180. The trade was a 4.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,681 shares of company stock valued at $840,878 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.40% of the company's stock.

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.