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

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 6th,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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.89%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99.

Cogent Communications has raised its dividend by an average of 10.7% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Cogent Communications has a dividend payout ratio of -106.1% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Cogent Communications to earn ($3.01) per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $3.98 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of -132.2%.

Cogent Communications Stock Performance

Shares of CCOI stock opened at $81.40 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.03. Cogent Communications has a 52 week low of $50.80 and a 52 week high of $86.76. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $78.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.49. The company has a market capitalization of $3.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 104.36 and a beta of 0.40.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm 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) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Cogent Communications will post -4.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CCOI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Thursday, November 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $102.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 target price on shares of Cogent Communications in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Bank of America downgraded Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $75.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cogent Communications news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $318,444,627.16. This represents a 1.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, VP John B. Chang sold 1,400 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.67, for a total transaction of $100,338.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 71,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,130,138.60. This represents a 1.92 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 67,796 shares of company stock worth $4,964,783. Company insiders own 11.40% 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.