Insider Selling: Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Director Sells 956 Shares of Stock

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Director Lewis H. Ferguson sold 956 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.36, for a total value of $66,308.16. Following the sale, the director now owns 18,652 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,293,702.72. The trade was a 4.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Cogent Communications Stock Down 3.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ CCOI traded down $2.33 during trading on Thursday, reaching $67.61. The company had a trading volume of 280,942 shares, compared to its average volume of 370,434. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $50.80 and a 12-month high of $86.76. The business’s 50-day moving average is $75.75 and its 200 day moving average is $76.92. The company has a quick ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87. The stock has a market cap of $3.33 billion, a PE ratio of 86.68 and a beta of 0.45.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The technology company reported ($0.91) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.22) by $0.31. The business had revenue of $252.29 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $258.49 million. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 36.31% and a net margin of 3.73%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 13th will be paid a $1.005 dividend. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $4.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.95%. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is -93.49%.

Institutional Trading of Cogent Communications

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CCOI. DigitalBridge Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 246.0% during the 4th quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 907,916 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $69,973,000 after buying an additional 645,521 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Cogent Communications during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,845,000. Brown Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in Cogent Communications by 24.1% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,897,090 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $146,209,000 after purchasing an additional 368,129 shares in the last quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 21.8% in the 4th quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 1,436,855 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $110,738,000 after purchasing an additional 257,383 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 45.7% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 752,158 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $57,961,000 after buying an additional 235,842 shares during the last quarter. 92.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on CCOI shares. UBS Group started coverage on Cogent Communications in a report on Thursday, November 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $102.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com raised Cogent Communications to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned 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, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.