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

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

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on CCOI. Citigroup increased their price objective on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Cogent Communications from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and decreased their target price for the company from $75.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. TD Cowen boosted 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. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $75.86.

Cogent Communications Stock Up 3.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ CCOI opened at $72.28 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $67.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.42. Cogent Communications has a 12 month low of $50.80 and a 12 month high of $86.00. The company has a current ratio of 2.20, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.54 billion, a PE ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 0.41.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 4.26% and a negative return on equity of 32.14%. The business had revenue of $260.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $264.32 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.13) earnings per share. Cogent Communications’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Cogent Communications will post -4.66 earnings per share for the current 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 $0.985 dividend. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $3.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.45%. Cogent Communications’s payout ratio is 15.61%.

Insider Activity

In other Cogent Communications news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.60, for a total transaction of $3,276,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,493,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $245,319,874.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.60, for a total transaction of $3,276,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,493,038 shares in the company, valued at $245,319,874.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Thaddeus Gerard Weed sold 2,400 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $52.60, for a total value of $126,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 93,300 shares in the company, valued at $4,907,580. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 185,870 shares of company stock valued at $11,124,759 in the last 90 days. 11.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cogent Communications

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CCOI. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 1.1% in the second quarter. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC now owns 19,407 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,095,000 after buying an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Cogent Communications by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 4,221 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $321,000 after acquiring an additional 237 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd grew its stake in Cogent Communications by 17.2% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,880 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $123,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 2.7% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 12,354 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $697,000 after buying an additional 327 shares during the period. Finally, EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Cogent Communications in the first quarter worth about $26,000. 92.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.