Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) VP Sells $183,334.80 in Stock

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) VP John B. Chang sold 2,280 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.41, for a total transaction of $183,334.80. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 69,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,572,413. This represents a 3.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Cogent Communications Stock Down 1.1 %

Cogent Communications stock opened at $77.81 on Friday. The firm has a market cap 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 quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.03. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $78.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $68.02. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $50.80 and a twelve month high of $86.76.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $257.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $258.69 million. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 3.73% and a negative return on equity of 36.31%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($1.13) EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. M&G Plc acquired a new position in shares of Cogent Communications during the 1st quarter worth $27,942,000. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 327.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 981,623 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $64,129,000 after purchasing an additional 752,133 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 289.6% during the 2nd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 10,020 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $566,000 after purchasing an additional 7,448 shares during the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 16.6% during the 1st 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 during the last quarter. Finally, State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 55.6% during the 1st 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CCOI has been the subject of several recent research reports. Bank of America lowered shares of Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $75.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. KeyCorp increased their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 price target on shares of Cogent Communications in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, UBS Group started coverage on shares of Cogent Communications in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cogent Communications presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $80.25.

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.