Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (CCOI) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 13th

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 26th, RTT News reports. Investors 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.77%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 13th. This is a 1.0% increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00.

Cogent Communications has raised its dividend by an average of 7.3% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 14 years. Cogent Communications has a dividend payout ratio of -191.4% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Cogent Communications to earn ($2.63) per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $4.02 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of -152.9%.

Cogent Communications Stock Performance

CCOI stock opened at $69.63 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $3.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 89.27 and a beta of 0.45. Cogent Communications has a one year low of $50.80 and a one year high of $86.76. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $76.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $76.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.03.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The technology company reported ($0.91) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.22) by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $252.29 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $258.49 million. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 3.73% and a negative return on equity of 36.31%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Cogent Communications will post -4.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cogent Communications news, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 4,800 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.61, for a total value of $362,928.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 33,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,555,618. This trade represents a 12.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Thaddeus Gerard Weed sold 4,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.06, for a total transaction of $353,094.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 103,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,422,180. This trade represents a 4.54 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 15,525 shares of company stock worth $1,137,498. Company insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on CCOI shares. UBS Group initiated coverage on Cogent Communications in a report on Thursday, November 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com raised shares of Cogent Communications to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $80.25.

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.