Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Price Target Increased to $71.00 by Analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) had its price target increased by The Goldman Sachs Group from $62.00 to $71.00 in a research note published on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the technology company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also issued reports on CCOI. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $74.00 price objective on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $77.14.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of Cogent Communications stock opened at $76.09 on Friday. Cogent Communications has a twelve month low of $50.80 and a twelve month high of $86.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a current ratio of 2.20. The firm has a market cap of $3.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 0.41. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $71.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $64.45.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The technology company reported ($0.68) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.27) by $0.59. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 32.14% and a net margin of 4.26%. The company had revenue of $260.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $264.32 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.13) EPS. The company’s revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Cogent Communications will post -4.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were paid a $0.985 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 22nd. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. This represents a $3.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.18%. Cogent Communications’s payout ratio is currently 15.61%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Lewis H. Ferguson sold 1,550 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.62, for a total value of $112,561.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 17,748 shares in the company, valued at $1,288,859.76. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.82, for a total value of $4,369,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,373,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $318,444,627.16. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 transaction of $112,561.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 17,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,288,859.76. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 64,870 shares of company stock valued at $4,716,057 over the last three months. 11.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cogent Communications

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cogent Communications in the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in Cogent Communications by 127.5% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 787 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 441 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd grew its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 17.2% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,880 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $123,000 after buying an additional 276 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications in the 1st quarter valued at about $136,000. Finally, Syon Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $211,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

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.