Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Receives “Outperform” Rating from Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada restated their outperform rating on shares of Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) in a research report released on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $74.00 price target on the technology company’s stock.

Several other analysts have also commented on the stock. Bank of America lowered shares of Cogent Communications from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and decreased their price target for the company from $75.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised 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. TD Cowen upped their price target on Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Citigroup increased their price objective on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Cogent Communications from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $75.86.

Cogent Communications Trading Up 1.2 %

CCOI opened at $73.18 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $67.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $64.40. The company has a market capitalization of $3.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.41. Cogent Communications has a 52 week low of $50.80 and a 52 week high of $86.00. The company has a quick ratio of 2.20, a current ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The technology company reported ($0.68) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $260.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $264.32 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.13) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Cogent Communications will post -4.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd were paid a $0.985 dividend. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $3.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.38%. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.61%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.60, for a total value of $3,276,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,493,038 shares in the company, valued at $245,319,874.80. The sale 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 company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.60, for a total value of $3,276,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,493,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $245,319,874.80. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lewis H. Ferguson sold 1,550 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 17,748 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,288,859.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 185,870 shares of company stock valued at $11,124,759. 11.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Cogent Communications

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. lifted its holdings in 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 valued at $86,759,000 after acquiring an additional 485,628 shares during the period. Harspring Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter. Harspring Capital Management LLC now owns 1,176,500 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $66,402,000 after purchasing an additional 66,500 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 2,739.1% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,035,261 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $58,430,000 after purchasing an additional 998,796 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Cogent Communications by 327.7% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 981,623 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $64,129,000 after buying an additional 752,133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hood River Capital Management LLC grew its position in Cogent Communications by 18.9% during the second quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 874,174 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $49,338,000 after buying an additional 138,680 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.