Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.98 Per Share

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 8th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 23rd will be paid a dividend of 0.975 per share by the technology company on Friday, June 7th. This represents a $3.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 22nd. This is a boost from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.97.

Cogent Communications has increased its dividend by an average of 10.7% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Cogent Communications has a payout ratio of -141.4% 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 ($2.32) per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $3.86 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of -166.4%.

Cogent Communications Stock Performance

Cogent Communications stock traded down $2.59 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $59.11. The company had a trading volume of 333,798 shares, compared to its average volume of 409,557. The firm has a market cap of $2.80 billion, a PE ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.24, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 1.38. Cogent Communications has a one year low of $57.35 and a one year high of $86.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $65.02 and a 200 day moving average of $69.43.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CCOI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Cogent Communications from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. TheStreet raised shares of Cogent Communications from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Cogent Communications from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $88.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $81.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. One investment 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 data from MarketBeat.com, Cogent Communications currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $76.43.

Insider Activity

In other news, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.62, for a total value of $147,110.40. Following the sale, the executive now owns 54,822 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,200,461.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.62, for a total transaction of $147,110.40. Following the sale, the executive now owns 54,822 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,200,461.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 8,826 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 4,815,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $349,383,678.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 69,320 shares of company stock valued at $4,669,997 over the last quarter. Company 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.