River Road Asset Management LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI)

River Road Asset Management LLC cut its stake in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) by 8.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 260,518 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 24,144 shares during the period. River Road Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.53% of Cogent Communications worth $20,078,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Cogent Communications by 1.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,750,810 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $132,921,000 after buying an additional 22,738 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its holdings in Cogent Communications by 0.3% in the third quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,542,503 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $117,107,000 after buying an additional 5,307 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its holdings in Cogent Communications by 0.4% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,039,458 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $78,916,000 after buying an additional 4,197 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Cogent Communications by 0.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,014,322 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $77,021,000 after buying an additional 3,093 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC increased its holdings in Cogent Communications by 11.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 800,758 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $60,793,000 after buying an additional 79,474 shares in the last quarter. 92.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Cogent Communications Stock Down 2.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ CCOI opened at $69.63 on Tuesday. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $50.80 and a 1 year high of $86.76. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $76.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $76.99. The firm has a market cap of $3.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 89.27 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.03.

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

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $1.005 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $4.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.77%. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -93.49%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on CCOI. StockNews.com raised shares of Cogent Communications to a “sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. UBS Group started coverage on shares of Cogent Communications in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $102.00 price target on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $80.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cogent Communications news, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 4,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.61, for a total transaction of $362,928.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 33,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,555,618. This trade represents a 12.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CRO James Bubeck sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.67, for a total transaction of $143,340.00. Following the transaction, the executive now directly owns 57,142 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,095,367.14. This represents a 3.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 15,525 shares of company stock worth $1,137,498. 11.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cogent Communications 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.