Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Stock Rating Upgraded by UBS Group

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

CCOI has been the subject of several other research reports. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Citigroup increased 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased 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. Bank of America downgraded shares of Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $75.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 target price on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Cogent Communications has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $80.25.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CCOI opened at $79.40 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.03. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $78.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $68.14. Cogent Communications has a fifty-two week low of $50.80 and a fifty-two week high of $86.76. The firm has a market cap of $3.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 101.79 and a beta of 0.40.

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

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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 represents a $3.98 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 510.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.77, for a total value of $133,958.40. Following the transaction, the executive now owns 50,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,557,014.14. This trade represents a 3.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP John B. Chang sold 2,280 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.41, for a total transaction of $183,334.80. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 69,300 shares in the company, valued at $5,572,413. This trade represents a 3.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,008,175 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCOI. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new position in Cogent Communications during the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new position in Cogent Communications during the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in Cogent Communications by 204.5% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 405 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares during the period. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Cogent Communications by 72.9% during the 3rd quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 536 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the period. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its position in Cogent Communications by 127.5% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 787 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $44,000 after purchasing an additional 441 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% 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.