Insider Selling: Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Director Sells $108,783.00 in Stock

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Director Sheryl Lynn Kennedy sold 1,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.58, for a total value of $108,783.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,318 shares in the company, valued at approximately $831,424.44. This represents a 11.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Cogent Communications Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CCOI opened at $77.81 on Friday. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $50.80 and a 1 year high of $86.76. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $78.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $68.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.81 billion, a PE ratio of 99.76 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a current ratio of 2.03 and a quick ratio of 2.03.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.34) by $0.01. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 36.31% and a net margin of 3.73%. The business had revenue of $257.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $258.69 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($1.13) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.54 EPS for the current year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a $0.995 dividend. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.12%. Cogent Communications’s payout ratio is presently 505.13%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on CCOI. KeyCorp raised their price target on Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 target price on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Bank of America cut Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $65.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $80.25.

Institutional Trading of Cogent Communications

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. M&G Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications in the first quarter valued at approximately $27,942,000. Capital World Investors raised its stake in Cogent Communications by 327.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 981,623 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $64,129,000 after buying an additional 752,133 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Cogent Communications by 289.6% in the second quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 10,020 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $566,000 after buying an additional 7,448 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its stake in Cogent Communications by 16.6% in the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 738,664 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $48,257,000 after buying an additional 105,164 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its stake in Cogent Communications by 55.6% in the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 23,015 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,467,000 after buying an additional 8,223 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

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.