Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Upgraded to “Strong-Buy” at UBS Group

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

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on CCOI. Citigroup lifted 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted 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 lifted their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cogent Communications has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.25.

Cogent Communications Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CCOI traded down $0.64 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $77.17. 125,817 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 438,585. The company has a current ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87. Cogent Communications has a twelve month low of $50.80 and a twelve month high of $86.76. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $78.08 and a 200 day moving average of $68.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 99.76 and a beta of 0.40.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.34) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $257.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $258.69 million. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 36.31% and a net margin of 3.73%. Cogent Communications’s revenue was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($1.13) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Cogent Communications will post -4.54 EPS for the current year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. This represents a $3.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.16%. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 505.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of the company’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 in the company, valued at approximately $3,557,014.14. This represents a 3.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, VP John B. Chang sold 1,400 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 71,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,130,138.60. This trade represents a 1.92 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock valued at $5,008,175. Company insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cogent Communications

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 46.2% during 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 buying an additional 485,628 shares during the last quarter. Harspring Capital Management LLC lifted its position 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 valued at $66,402,000 after purchasing an additional 66,500 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its position in shares of 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. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 327.7% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 981,623 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $64,129,000 after purchasing an additional 752,133 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hood River Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 138,680 shares in the last quarter. 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.