Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $1.01

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be given 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 5.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00.

Cogent Communications has increased its dividend by an average of 7.3% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 13 years. Cogent Communications has a 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 Price Performance

NASDAQ:CCOI traded up $0.61 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $73.07. 728,154 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 350,099. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.03. The company has a market cap of $3.58 billion, a PE ratio of 93.68 and a beta of 0.40. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $76.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $77.04. Cogent Communications has a 1 year low of $50.80 and a 1 year high of $86.76.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The technology company reported ($0.91) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.22) by $0.31. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 3.73% and a negative return on equity of 36.31%. The business had revenue of $252.29 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $258.49 million. Sell-side analysts expect that Cogent Communications will post -4.55 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Activity at Cogent Communications

In other news, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 4,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.61, for a total value of $362,928.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 33,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,555,618. This trade represents a 12.44 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were 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 owns 49,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,794,917.20. This represents a 3.73 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 13,440 shares of company stock worth $1,057,910. Company insiders own 11.40% 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.