COGENT COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS, INC.
CCOI · Communications · $507M mkt cap · FY2025 filings · · Shallow moat ·
Doesn't clear the bar
The five investor questions
2021–2025 (latest 5 aligned FYs; v3 window cap 5): revenue $590M to $976M, increasing; diluted EPS 1.03 to -3.80, decreasing.
Median gross margin 57.3% over 10y, stable.
Median ROIC 24.6%, above the 12% hurdle in 70% of years.
Net debt/EBITDA 9.4x, interest coverage 0x.
Owner earnings changed trend unclear over up to the ten most recent annual observations.
Price vs. value if growth stopped today
A cautious baseline, not a price target: what the shares may support if normalized owner earnings simply hold steady.
- $18.4M
- $4.08
- $4.08
- $10.13
- 148% above value if growth stopped today
What today’s price assumes: owner earnings growing ~20%/yr over 5 years. The zero-growth estimate assumes owner earnings stay flat (0% growth).
How to read this
We solve for the constant annual change in owner earnings that would make the five-year zero-growth estimate equal today’s price. This keeps the existing model inputs and calculation unchanged; it is an expectations lens, not a forecast.
This zero-growth estimate assumes trailing owner earnings persist — unreliable for declining businesses. The recent FY revenue series does not trigger the three-consecutive-declines flag.
Among the current top-score group, the median current price is 238% above the zero-growth estimate across 49 of the current top 50 companies by Moat Score with both values.
Score records captured Sep 4, 2026.
Exactly which 50 companies?
FTNT, META, MEDP, IBEX, MSFT, GOOG, LULU, ANF, IDXX, TXRH, FHI, QLYS, FFIV, ADBE, LLY, MANH, VEEV, RMD, GRMN, PCTY, EAT, UI, SSD, MNST, DOCS, LRCX, MCO, CPRT, NTAP, NVDA, CORT, SFM, MPTI, ULTA, SN, ROL, CTAS, PAYC, IRMD, INTU, DECK, MORN, JKHY, TPR, LGCY, DAL, GWW, ISRG, MPWR, LOPE
Missing a usable price or zero-growth estimate: ANF.
Model details under moat-index@3.0.0: zero-growth multiple 11.1×, capped-growth comparison at no more than 18×; 9% discount rate; high-end growth 0% (capped at 4%) using min(5y revenue CAGR, 5y diluted-EPS CAGR), clamped to 0%–4%; maintenance capex uses min(capex, D&A); abstain when D&A is unavailable. This is a disclosed model range, not intrinsic value as fact.
18 years of fundamentals
The business, in plain English
COGENT COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS, INC. booked $976M of revenue in FY2025 in the Communications sector and kept 45.2% of it as gross profit — a solid-margin business by that measure. After every other cost, −18.7% of each revenue dollar reached the bottom line.
Across the filed record, revenue grew from $348M (FY2013) to $976M (FY2025) — about 9.0% a year compounded over 12 years.
It earned −5.3% on invested capital in the latest filed year, FY2025. Across the full 14-year measurable filed record, median ROIC was 16.0%. Over the v3 recent window (10 measurable filed years), median ROIC was 24.6%. The Returns on Capital filter above scores it 90/100.
The balance sheet carried $1.7B of total debt in FY2025. Balance-Sheet Safety scores it 0/100.
Put together: Returns on Capital is the strongest of the five filters (90/100) and Balance-Sheet Safety the weakest (0/100), which is how CCOI lands at 50/100 — a Shallow moat.
This breakdown is generated from the filed numbers and sub-scores above — no outside narrative, no estimates. Where a filing doesn’t disclose an input, the sentence that would need it is omitted instead of guessed.
Exact FY and FY-1 financing invested-capital inputs are required.
The explained ROIC gaps have filed inputs but no meaningful positive invested-capital denominator. Other gaps mean the item is not in the filings for that year. The series is never interpolated or estimated. The Table view lists every filed value, including operating and net margins, total debt, and share count.
Visual explainers
The filing-backed explainer service is temporarily unavailable, so no partial or guessed chart is shown.
Moat Score history
Breaks in the line mark methodology or normalizer upgrades — readings across versions aren’t compared, so a level shift there isn’t a change in the business.
Tier changesSame-methodology and same-normalizer crossings of the Wide / Narrow / Shallow bars
- Normalizer upgraded unstamped (version unknown)tomoat-xbrl-normalizer@1.1.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 26, 2026
- Methodology upgraded moat-index@2.0.0tomoat-index@3.0.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 23, 2026
- Methodology upgraded moat-index@1.2.0tomoat-index@2.0.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 20, 2026
Scores are logged append-only and never overwritten — this record cannot be reconstructed retroactively, which is exactly why it’s worth keeping.
Insider activity
Form 4 reports mix P/S market or private transactions with compensation-plan mechanics. Activity casually described as “insider selling” can include compensation mechanics; awards, tax withholding, and option exercises are shown by their exact filed class here, never collapsed into “Bought” or “Sold.”
These are disclosed filing facts and arithmetic aggregates, not a signal or verdict.
The insider-filing service is temporarily unavailable, so no partial or guessed answer is shown for CCOI.
Communications context
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Common questions about CCOI
- Does COGENT COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS, INC. have an economic moat?
- Based on its FY2025 SEC filings, the Moat Index scores COGENT COMMUNICATIONS HOLDINGS, INC. (CCOI) 49.9 out of 100 — a Shallow moat. The five questions behind that score begin at 20% each; if exactly one genuinely lacks data, the other four weights are renormalized and disclosed. revenue and EPS trend 55, pricing power 81, returns on capital 90, balance-sheet safety 0, capital allocation 24.
- Is CCOI trading below the conservative owner-earnings estimate?
- The value if growth stopped today — a zero-growth baseline — is $4.08 per share. It capitalizes normalized owner earnings at a 9% rate and assumes 0% growth. Versus a recent price of $10.13, that is 148% above value if growth stopped today. The model also publishes a capped-growth comparison, but the zero-growth estimate is the cautious baseline. It assumes trailing owner earnings persist and is unreliable for declining businesses. This is an educational estimate from primary SEC filings, not intrinsic value as a fact or investment advice.
- How has CCOI's Moat Score changed over time?
- The record logs 16 readings since Jul 17, 2026; the latest reads 49.9 out of 100 (shallow moat). No tier changes on record yet. (Methodology or normalizer upgrades on Jul 20, 2026, Jul 23, 2026, Jul 26, 2026 re-based the score; readings across versions aren't compared.) The history is append-only — readings are only ever added, never rewritten.