Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Director Sells $520,551.80 in Stock

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Director Blake Bath sold 6,220 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.69, for a total value of $520,551.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $836,900. This trade represents a 38.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

CCOI stock opened at $83.16 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $79.21 and its two-hundred day moving average is $68.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a current ratio of 2.03 and a quick ratio of 2.03. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 106.61 and a beta of 0.40. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $50.80 and a 1 year high of $86.76.

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

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.995 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.79%. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. Cogent Communications’s payout ratio is presently 505.13%.

Institutional Trading of Cogent Communications

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CCOI. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 327.7% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 981,623 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $64,129,000 after acquiring an additional 752,133 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased 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 valued at $566,000 after purchasing an additional 7,448 shares during the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. raised its holdings in Cogent Communications by 16.6% during the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 738,664 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $48,257,000 after purchasing an additional 105,164 shares in the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its holdings in Cogent Communications by 55.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 8,223 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $514,000. 92.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $74.00 price objective on shares of Cogent Communications in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. UBS Group started coverage on Cogent Communications in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company. Finally, Bank of America downgraded Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $80.25.

Cogent Communications Company Profile

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.