Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Posts Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.04 EPS

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

Cogent Communications Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ CCOI traded down $0.37 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $48.93. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,248,464 shares, compared to its average volume of 470,061. Cogent Communications has a 12 month low of $45.00 and a 12 month high of $86.76. The stock has a market cap of $2.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 62.73 and a beta of 0.76. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $59.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $71.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.03.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 22nd will be given a dividend of $1.01 per share. This is a boost from Cogent Communications's previous quarterly dividend of $1.01. This represents a $4.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.26%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 22nd. Cogent Communications's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -93.49%.

Insider Transactions at Cogent Communications

In other news, Director Lewis H. Ferguson sold 956 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.36, for a total transaction of $66,308.16. Following the sale, the director now owns 18,652 shares in the company, valued at $1,293,702.72. This trade represents a 4.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Thaddeus Gerard Weed sold 4,900 shares of the 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 103,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,422,180. The trade was a 4.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,681 shares of company stock valued at $840,878 in the last three months. 11.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CCOI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Cogent Communications to a "sell" rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $71.00 to $62.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $102.00 to $75.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $75.75.

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.

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