We got here throughout a bullish thesis on Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. on Compound & Fireplace’s Substack. On this article, we’ll summarize the bulls’ thesis on CCOI. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc.’s share was buying and selling at $37.92 as of September 18th. CCOI’s trailing and ahead P/E had been 94.04 and 5.00k respectively based on Yahoo Finance.
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Cogent Communications Holdings (NASDAQ: CCOI) presents a compelling deep-value alternative regardless of its look as a closely leveraged, transitional telecom firm. At first look, the $2.3 billion debt, web losses, and CEO share gross sales recommend threat, but beneath the floor, Cogent holds underappreciated property and structural development catalysts.
A pivotal second got here with the 2024 acquisition of Dash’s wireline property from T-Cell for $1, which included 19,000 miles of intercity fiber, 1,200 miles of metro fiber, 482 central workplace buildings, and a World Cell Group enterprise unit, alongside a $700 million T-Cell subsidy over 54 months. These property, lengthy dormant, have been reactivated into high-margin optical wavelength providers and information facilities, increasing Cogent’s footprint to 2 million sq. ft and 212 MW of energy, with capital expenditures peaking in 2024 and anticipated to normalize round $150 million yearly.
Cogent advantages from a tax defend by 2030, permitting EBITDA to movement on to money technology. Monetization of 24 non-core information facilities and 38 million IPv4 addresses may generate $1.8–$2.6 billion, probably eliminating web debt and considerably reducing curiosity prices. The rising wavelength enterprise, focusing on $500 million income by 2028 with near-90% gross margins, enhances a stabilizing legacy enterprise, driving long-term EBITDA development towards $500 million and free money movement of $278 million. Even conservative projections recommend a ten%+ free money movement yield at this time, enhanced by a ten.8% dividend.
Whereas CEO share gross sales could alarm some, they’re largely unrelated to firm fundamentals, and Cogent’s strategic focus stays on high-margin wavelengths and information middle interconnects. With asset monetization, debt discount, and secular development in optical transport, Cogent gives a sexy threat/reward profile, supported by tangible catalysts and potential market rerating, positioning it as a standout deep-value play within the telecom area.
Beforehand we lined a bullish thesis on Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (CCOI) by Aaron Chan in January 2025, which highlighted the corporate’s wavelength community leveraging Dash’s fiber property, ROADM-enabled hubs, and scalable operations for hyperscale prospects. The corporate’s inventory value has depreciated roughly by 48.06% since our protection. The thesis nonetheless stands as CCOI’s community is totally operational. Compound & Fireplace shares the same perspective however emphasizes deep-value catalysts like tax shields, information middle monetization, and debt discount.
