Reviewing Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) and Nexxen International (NASDAQ:NEXN)

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) and Nexxen International (NASDAQ:NEXN) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, dividends and institutional ownership.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Cogent Communications and Nexxen International, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Cogent Communications	0	3	3	0	2.50
Nexxen International	0	0	8	0	3.00

Cogent Communications currently has a consensus target price of $57.50, indicating a potential upside of 49.82%. Nexxen International has a consensus target price of $15.00, indicating a potential upside of 47.49%. Given Cogent Communications’ higher probable upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Cogent Communications is more favorable than Nexxen International.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Cogent Communications	-21.57%	-117.56%	-6.78%
Nexxen International	13.37%	13.64%	8.84%

Risk & Volatility

Cogent Communications has a beta of 0.68, meaning that its share price is 32% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nexxen International has a beta of 1.74, meaning that its share price is 74% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

92.4% of Cogent Communications shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.2% of Nexxen International shares are owned by institutional investors. 11.4% of Cogent Communications shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Cogent Communications and Nexxen International”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Cogent Communications	$1.00 billion	1.88	-$204.07 million	($4.54)	-8.45
Nexxen International	$365.48 million	1.76	$35.44 million	$0.63	16.14

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

Summary

Nexxen International beats Cogent Communications on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. It also provides Internet access and private network services to customers that are not located in buildings directly connected to its network; and on-net services to customers located in buildings that are physically connected to its network. In addition, the company offers off-net services to corporate customers using other carriers' circuits to provide the last mile portion of the link from the customers' premises to the network. Further, it operates data centers that allow its customers to collocate their equipment and access the network. It serves primarily to small and medium-sized businesses, communications service providers, and other bandwidth-intensive organizations. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Washington, the District of Columbia.

About Nexxen International

Tremor International Ltd provides end-to-end software platform that enables advertisers to reach relevant audiences and publishers. The company's demand side platform (DSP) offers full-service and self-managed marketplace access to advertisers and agencies to execute their digital marketing campaigns in real time across various ad formats. Its sell supply side platform (SSP) provides access to data and a comprehensive product suite to drive inventory management and revenue optimization. The company also offers data management platform solution, which integrates DSP and SSP solutions enabling advertisers and publishers to use data from various sources in order to optimize results of their advertising campaigns. It serves ad buyers, advertisers, brands, agencies, and digital publishers in Israel, the United States, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company was formerly known as Taptica International Ltd. and changed its name to Tremor International Ltd in September 2015. Tremor International Ltd was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.