Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Price Target Increased to $82.00 by Analysts at Citigroup

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) had its price objective boosted by Citigroup from $70.00 to $82.00 in a research note published on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. KeyCorp cut their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $88.00 to $80.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 10th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cogent Communications from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $74.00 price objective on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cogent Communications presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $74.43.

Cogent Communications Trading Down 1.3 %

CCOI opened at $73.74 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.41. Cogent Communications has a 12 month low of $50.80 and a 12 month high of $86.00. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $62.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $64.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.80.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The technology company reported ($0.68) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.27) by $0.59. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 114.09% and a negative return on equity of 24.63%. The firm had revenue of $260.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $264.32 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.13) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Cogent Communications will post -4.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.985 per share. This represents a $3.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.34%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 22nd. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.61%.

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 Friday, June 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.78, for a total transaction of $3,106,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,433,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $229,542,707.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.78, for a total transaction of $3,106,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,433,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $229,542,707.64. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Thaddeus Gerard Weed sold 2,400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.60, for a total transaction of $126,240.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 93,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,907,580. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 124,800 shares of company stock worth $6,643,440 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Cogent Communications

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Senator Investment Group LP lifted its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 7.5% during the second quarter. Senator Investment Group LP now owns 716,768 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $40,454,000 after purchasing an additional 50,000 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in Cogent Communications by 127.5% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Creative Planning increased its stake in Cogent Communications by 58.3% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 12,575 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $710,000 after purchasing an additional 4,632 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in Cogent Communications in the second quarter valued at $251,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 5.1% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 25,887 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,461,000 after acquiring an additional 1,256 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.