StockNews.com Lowers Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) to Sell

StockNews.com cut shares of Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report published on Thursday.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on CCOI. TheStreet raised Cogent Communications from a c+ rating to a b rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Cogent Communications from $74.00 to $73.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Bank of America cut Cogent Communications from a buy rating to a neutral rating and decreased their price target for the company from $85.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, March 7th. KeyCorp raised their price target on Cogent Communications from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price target on Cogent Communications from $81.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $77.57.

Cogent Communications Stock Performance

Shares of CCOI opened at $65.79 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $67.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $69.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.24. Cogent Communications has a 12 month low of $57.35 and a 12 month high of $86.00. The company has a market cap of $3.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.39.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.95) by $0.79. The firm had revenue of $272.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $275.82 million. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 23.66% and a net margin of 135.34%. Research analysts anticipate that Cogent Communications will post -3.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 9th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.965 per share. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.96. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.87%. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.43%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 8,826 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.55, for a total transaction of $640,326.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,815,764 shares in the company, valued at $349,383,678.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 8,826 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.55, for a total transaction of $640,326.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,815,764 shares in the company, valued at $349,383,678.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 2,400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.47, for a total value of $176,328.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 41,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,012,270. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 69,320 shares of company stock worth $4,669,997 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC grew its position in Cogent Communications by 58.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 710,612 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $43,987,000 after acquiring an additional 263,313 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in Cogent Communications by 46.6% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 828,664 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $63,028,000 after acquiring an additional 263,276 shares in the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. grew its position in Cogent Communications by 107.2% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 46,822 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,898,000 after acquiring an additional 24,226 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates grew its position in Cogent Communications by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 630,300 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $47,941,000 after acquiring an additional 41,104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, River Road Asset Management LLC grew its position in Cogent Communications by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 417,801 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $31,778,000 after acquiring an additional 36,288 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.