Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.31 EPS

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The technology company reported ($0.91) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.22) by $0.31, Zacks reports. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 36.31% and a net margin of 3.73%.

Cogent Communications Trading Down 9.5 %

Cogent Communications stock traded down $7.65 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $72.46. The company had a trading volume of 973,078 shares, compared to its average volume of 340,152. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a current ratio of 2.03 and a quick ratio of 2.03. Cogent Communications has a 12-month low of $50.80 and a 12-month high of $86.76. The firm has a market cap of $3.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 92.90 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $76.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $77.07.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a $1.005 dividend. This is a boost from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.55%. Cogent Communications’s payout ratio is 510.26%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.60, for a total value of $147,072.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 49,542 shares in the company, valued at $3,794,917.20. The trade was a 3.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Thaddeus Gerard Weed sold 4,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.58, for a total value of $391,584.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 88,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,219,830. This represents a 5.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 13,440 shares of company stock valued at $1,057,910. Company insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, UBS Group initiated coverage on Cogent Communications in a report on Thursday, November 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $102.00 price objective on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $80.25.

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.