Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Increases Dividend to $1.01 Per Share

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be given a dividend of 1.005 per share by the technology company on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $4.02 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.55%. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00.

Cogent Communications has increased its dividend by an average of 7.3% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Cogent Communications has a payout ratio of -198.0% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Cogent Communications to earn ($2.63) 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 -151.3%.

Cogent Communications Stock Performance

Shares of CCOI opened at $72.46 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $76.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $77.04. The company has a quick ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87. Cogent Communications has a 52 week low of $50.80 and a 52 week high of $86.76. The stock has a market cap of $3.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 92.90 and a beta of 0.40.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The technology company reported ($0.91) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.22) by $0.31. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 3.73% and a negative return on equity of 36.31%. The company had revenue of $252.29 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $258.49 million. On average, analysts expect that Cogent Communications will post -4.55 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, UBS Group started coverage on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Thursday, November 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $102.00 target price for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cogent Communications

In other Cogent Communications news, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.60, for a total transaction of $147,072.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now owns 49,542 shares in the company, valued at $3,794,917.20. This trade represents a 3.73 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 4,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.61, for a total value of $362,928.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 33,800 shares in the company, valued at $2,555,618. This trade represents a 12.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 13,440 shares of company stock worth $1,057,910. 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.