Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.96

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 1st, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 24th will be paid a dividend of 0.955 per share by the technology company on Friday, December 8th. This represents a $3.82 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.82%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 22nd. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.95.

Cogent Communications has increased its dividend by an average of 13.4% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 12 consecutive years. Cogent Communications has a dividend payout ratio of -135.5% 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 ($2.42) per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $3.82 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of -157.9%.

Cogent Communications Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ CCOI opened at $65.60 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $64.75 and its 200-day moving average is $64.83. The stock has a market cap of $3.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.43. Cogent Communications has a twelve month low of $54.57 and a twelve month high of $75.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.09.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CCOI. TD Cowen raised shares of Cogent Communications from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $85.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 11th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $77.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 11th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $69.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $60.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 10th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Cogent Communications from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, November 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cogent Communications has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $75.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cogent Communications

In other Cogent Communications news, Director Blake Bath sold 379 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.00, for a total value of $25,393.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 27,941 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,872,047. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Cogent Communications news, Director Blake Bath sold 379 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.00, for a total value of $25,393.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 27,941 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,872,047. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Sheryl Lynn Kennedy sold 550 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.85, for a total transaction of $37,867.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 8,450 shares in the company, valued at $581,782.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 101,243 shares of company stock worth $6,802,299. Insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,172,729 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $269,811,000 after purchasing an additional 90,137 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,772,398 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $119,265,000 after purchasing an additional 10,259 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 934,323 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $61,990,000 after purchasing an additional 16,205 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 849,596 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $54,136,000 after purchasing an additional 34,384 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Cogent Communications during the 4th quarter worth about $39,772,000. 85.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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, Asia, South America, Australia, 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.