Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Raises Dividend to $1.00 Per Share

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 7th,Zacks Dividends reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a dividend of 0.995 per share by the technology company on Friday, December 6th. This represents a $3.98 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99.

Cogent Communications has increased its dividend by an average of 10.7% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Cogent Communications has a payout ratio of -111.6% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect Cogent Communications to earn ($3.33) per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $3.94 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of -118.3%.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

NASDAQ CCOI traded down $0.42 on Friday, hitting $84.93. The stock had a trading volume of 36,186 shares, compared to its average volume of 439,056. Cogent Communications has a 52-week low of $50.80 and a 52-week high of $86.76. 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 company has a market capitalization of $4.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 93.79 and a beta of 0.40. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $77.11 and a 200-day moving average of $67.50.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.34) by $0.01. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 4.26% and a negative return on equity of 32.14%. The business had revenue of $257.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $258.69 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($1.13) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Cogent Communications will post -4.46 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on CCOI. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 target price on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Two investment 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.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $77.14.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cogent Communications news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,373,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $318,444,627.16. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, VP John B. Chang sold 1,400 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.67, for a total transaction of $100,338.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 71,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,130,138.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $318,444,627.16. 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 a total of 64,870 shares of company stock valued at $4,716,057 in the last quarter. Insiders own 11.00% 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.