Short Interest in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Decreases By 11.8%

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) was the target of a large drop in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,390,000 shares, a drop of 11.8% from the August 15th total of 4,980,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 500,100 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 8.8 days. Approximately 9.9% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cogent Communications news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.82, for a total transaction of $4,369,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,373,038 shares in the company, valued at $318,444,627.16. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Lewis H. Ferguson sold 1,550 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.62, for a total value of $112,561.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 17,748 shares in the company, valued at $1,288,859.76. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.82, for a total value of $4,369,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,373,038 shares in the company, valued at $318,444,627.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 64,870 shares of company stock worth $4,716,057 in the last 90 days. 11.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCOI. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications during the first quarter worth about $26,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in Cogent Communications by 127.5% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 787 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 441 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 17.2% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,880 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 276 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications during the first quarter worth $136,000. Finally, Syon Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications during the fourth quarter worth $211,000. 92.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on CCOI. Citigroup increased 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. KeyCorp increased their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Cogent Communications from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cogent Communications currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $75.86.

Cogent Communications Trading Down 0.6 %

CCOI traded down $0.41 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $70.32. 300,222 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 452,730. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a current ratio of 2.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.40. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $69.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $63.88. Cogent Communications has a one year low of $50.80 and a one year high of $86.00.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The technology company reported ($0.68) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.27) by $0.59. The firm had revenue of $260.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $264.32 million. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 4.26% and a negative return on equity of 32.14%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.13) earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Cogent Communications will post -4.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.985 per share. This represents a $3.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 22nd. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 15.61%.

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.