Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) and Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Financial Review

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) and Uniti Group (NASDAQ:UNIT) are both small-cap communication services companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, dividends, institutional ownership, valuation and profitability.

Dividends

Cogent Communications pays an annual dividend of $0.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Uniti Group pays an annual dividend of $0.45 per share and has a dividend yield of 9.2%. Cogent Communications pays out -11.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Uniti Group pays out -13.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Cogent Communications has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years. Uniti Group is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk & Volatility

Cogent Communications has a beta of 0.8, meaning that its stock price is 20% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Uniti Group has a beta of 1.45, meaning that its stock price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Cogent Communications and Uniti Group, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cogent Communications	2	5	2	0	2.00
Uniti Group	1	6	1	1	2.22

Cogent Communications presently has a consensus price target of $18.24, indicating a potential upside of 354.97%. Uniti Group has a consensus price target of $9.50, indicating a potential upside of 94.67%. Given Cogent Communications’ higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Cogent Communications is more favorable than Uniti Group.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.4% of Cogent Communications shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 87.5% of Uniti Group shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.2% of Cogent Communications shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Uniti Group shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Cogent Communications and Uniti Group”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cogent Communications	$975.77 million	0.21	-$182.17 million	($0.71)	-5.65
Uniti Group	$3.66 billion	0.32	$1.30 billion	($3.24)	-1.51

Uniti Group has higher revenue and earnings than Cogent Communications. Cogent Communications is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Uniti Group, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Cogent Communications and Uniti Group’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cogent Communications	-3.53%	N/A	-4.58%
Uniti Group	-21.20%	-397.08%	-6.02%

About Cogent Communications

Cogent Communications is a facilities-based provider of internet and data-transport services. Its offerings include dedicated internet access, IP transit, Ethernet and wavelength services, and colocation, serving businesses, communications carriers, government agencies, and other organizations. The company operates a high-capacity network across North America and Europe. It connects customer locations to the internet and provides network capacity for organizations that need to move data between sites or across networks.

About Uniti Group

Uniti Group is a communications infrastructure company that owns, builds and operates fiber-optic networks and related broadband assets. Its network infrastructure supports broadband, wireless, enterprise and government communications, including fiber connectivity for businesses and other network operators. Founded in 2015 as a spin-off from Windstream, Uniti initially focused on owning and leasing communications infrastructure, including fiber networks. In 2025, Uniti combined with Windstream, bringing together infrastructure operations with Windstream’s Kinetic broadband and enterprise services.