Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at UBS Group

UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm issued a buy rating and a $102.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Bank of America lowered shares of Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $65.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 target price on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on 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, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Cogent Communications presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.25.

Cogent Communications Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CCOI traded up $1.71 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $79.52. 297,490 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 439,224. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $78.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $68.02. Cogent Communications has a 52 week low of $50.80 and a 52 week high of $86.76. The firm has a market cap of $3.90 billion, a PE ratio of 99.76 and a beta of 0.40. 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 (NASDAQ:CCOI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $257.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $258.69 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($1.13) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Cogent Communications will post -4.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be given a $0.995 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.01%. This is a boost from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 505.13%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, VP John B. Chang sold 2,280 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.41, for a total transaction of $183,334.80. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 69,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,572,413. This trade represents a 3.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Sheryl Lynn Kennedy sold 1,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.58, for a total value of $108,783.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,318 shares in the company, valued at approximately $831,424.44. This represents a 11.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,008,175 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cogent Communications

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp grew its position in Cogent Communications by 1.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,750,810 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $132,921,000 after buying an additional 22,738 shares during the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 46.2% in the second quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,537,196 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $86,759,000 after purchasing an additional 485,628 shares in the last quarter. Harspring Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 6.0% during the second quarter. Harspring Capital Management LLC now owns 1,176,500 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $66,402,000 after purchasing an additional 66,500 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its position in Cogent Communications by 0.4% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,039,458 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $78,916,000 after purchasing an additional 4,197 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its stake in Cogent Communications by 327.7% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 981,623 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $64,129,000 after buying an additional 752,133 shares during the period. 92.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.