Head-To-Head Survey: Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) vs. SoftBank (OTCMKTS:SFBQF)

SoftBank (OTCMKTS:SFBQF) and Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) are both communication services companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for SoftBank and Cogent Communications, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
SoftBank	0	0	1	0	3.00
Cogent Communications	1	7	3	0	2.18

Cogent Communications has a consensus price target of $21.05, suggesting a potential upside of 86.12%. Given Cogent Communications’ higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Cogent Communications is more favorable than SoftBank.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares SoftBank and Cogent Communications”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
SoftBank	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Cogent Communications	$975.77 million	0.59	-$182.17 million	($0.96)	-11.78

SoftBank has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Cogent Communications.

Profitability

This table compares SoftBank and Cogent Communications’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
SoftBank	N/A	N/A	N/A
Cogent Communications	-4.73%	-842.48%	-4.86%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.4% of Cogent Communications shares are held by institutional investors. 4.2% of Cogent Communications shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Cogent Communications beats SoftBank on 5 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About SoftBank

SoftBank Corp., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the telecommunication and information technology businesses in Japan. It operates through Consumer, Broadband, Electricity, Yahoo/LINE Business, Financial, and Other Business segments. The Consumer segment offers mobile services under the SoftBank, Y!mobile, LINE MOBILE, and LINEMO brands. This segment also sells mobile devices, such as phones and tablets; provides Internet broadband services under the SoftBank Hikari brand; sells and rents related customer-premises equipment for broadband services; and purchases, sells, and supplies of electricity. The Enterprise segment provides mobile, voice call and fixed-line communication, data transmission, and telecommunications consulting services; construction services for telecommunications carriers and general service providers; and rental and maintenance services for telecommunications facilities, housing, and data centers, as well as sells and rents telecommunications equipment. The Distribution segment offers hardware, software, and services in relation to information and communication technology, cloud, and Internet of Things (IoT) to enterprise customers. This segment also offers PC software, IoT products, and mobile device accessories to individual customers, as well as online business solutions and services, and solution services for government. The Yahoo segment provides internet-based advertising-related, information listing, and other corporate services, as well as settlement and finance related services; and plans and sells services through internet to small, medium-sized businesses, and individual customers. The company was formerly known as SoftBank Mobile Corp. and changed its name to SoftBank Corp. in May 2015. SoftBank Corp. was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

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. It also provides Internet access and private network services to customers that are not located in buildings directly connected to its network; and on-net services to customers located in buildings that are physically connected to its network. In addition, the company offers off-net services to corporate customers using other carriers' circuits to provide the last mile portion of the link from the customers' premises to the network. Further, it operates data centers that allow its customers to collocate their equipment and access the network. It serves primarily to small and medium-sized businesses, communications service providers, and other bandwidth-intensive organizations. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Washington, the District of Columbia.