Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Plans Dividend Increase – $1.01 Per Share

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of 1.005 per share by the technology company on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $4.02 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.02%. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00.

Cogent Communications has raised its dividend payment by an average of 7.3% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 13 consecutive years. Cogent Communications has a dividend payout ratio of -198.0% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Equities analysts expect Cogent Communications to earn ($2.63) per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $3.98 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of -151.3%.

Cogent Communications Stock Performance

NASDAQ CCOI opened at $80.11 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87. Cogent Communications has a twelve month low of $50.80 and a twelve month high of $86.76. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $76.77 and a 200 day moving average of $77.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 102.71 and a beta of 0.40.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The technology company reported ($0.91) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.22) by $0.31. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 36.31% and a net margin of 3.73%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Cogent Communications will post -4.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Cogent Communications news, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.60, for a total value of $147,072.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 49,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,794,917.20. This trade represents a 3.73 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Thaddeus Gerard Weed sold 4,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.58, for a total transaction of $391,584.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 88,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,219,830. The trade was a 5.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,440 shares of company stock worth $1,057,910 over the last three months. Insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, UBS Group started coverage on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $102.00 target price for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Cogent Communications has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $80.25.

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.