Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at UBS Group

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

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on CCOI. Citigroup lifted 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. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 price target on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Bank of America lowered 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 research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $80.25.

Cogent Communications Trading Up 2.0 %

NASDAQ:CCOI opened at $79.40 on Wednesday. Cogent Communications has a 12 month low of $50.80 and a 12 month high of $86.76. The company has a current ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $78.20 and its 200 day moving average is $68.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.89 billion, a PE ratio of 101.79 and a beta of 0.40.

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

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a $0.995 dividend. This is an increase 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 of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 505.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cogent Communications

In other news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.82, for a total transaction of $4,369,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,373,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $318,444,627.16. This represents a 1.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Lewis H. Ferguson sold 1,550 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.62, for a total value of $112,561.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,288,859.76. The trade was a 8.03 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,008,175 over the last three months. 11.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 327.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 981,623 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $64,129,000 after purchasing an additional 752,133 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Cogent Communications by 289.6% during the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 10,020 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $566,000 after buying an additional 7,448 shares during the period. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 16.6% during the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 738,664 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $48,257,000 after buying an additional 105,164 shares during the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 55.6% in the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 23,015 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,467,000 after buying an additional 8,223 shares during the period. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications in the 2nd quarter valued at about $514,000. 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.