Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Raises Dividend to $1.00 Per Share

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 7th,Zacks Dividends reports. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a dividend of 0.995 per share by the technology company on Friday, December 6th. This represents a $3.98 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This is a boost from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99.

Cogent Communications has raised its dividend payment by an average of 10.7% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Cogent Communications has a payout ratio of -111.6% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities research analysts expect Cogent Communications to earn ($3.33) per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $3.94 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of -118.3%.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of CCOI stock traded down $0.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $85.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 34,924 shares, compared to its average volume of 438,986. The company has a market cap of $4.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 93.79 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a current ratio of 2.20. Cogent Communications has a 1-year low of $50.80 and a 1-year high of $86.76. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $77.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.50.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.34) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $257.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $258.69 million. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 4.26% and a negative return on equity of 32.14%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($1.13) EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Cogent Communications will post -4.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CCOI. Bank of America downgraded shares of Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. TD Cowen raised 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. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $77.14.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cogent Communications

In other news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.82, for a total transaction of $4,369,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,373,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $318,444,627.16. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Cogent Communications news, Director Lewis H. Ferguson sold 1,550 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.62, for a total value of $112,561.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 17,748 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,288,859.76. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.82, for a total transaction of $4,369,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,373,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $318,444,627.16. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 64,870 shares of company stock worth $4,716,057 over the last quarter. 11.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.