Short Interest in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Expands By 15.5%

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) was the target of a large growth in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,400,000 shares, a growth of 15.5% from the May 31st total of 3,810,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 485,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 9.1 days. Approximately 10.0% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Activity at Cogent Communications

In other Cogent Communications news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $59.44, for a total transaction of $2,972,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,553,038 shares in the company, valued at $270,632,578.72. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Cogent Communications news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $59.44, for a total transaction of $2,972,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,553,038 shares in the company, valued at $270,632,578.72. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Marc Montagner purchased 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 11th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $52.61 per share, for a total transaction of $526,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 79,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,180,811.48. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 178,440 shares of company stock valued at $9,828,016. Corporate insiders own 11.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CCOI. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 500.1% during the 1st quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,051,568 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $68,699,000 after purchasing an additional 876,326 shares in the last quarter. Harspring Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Cogent Communications by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Harspring Capital Management LLC now owns 1,019,500 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $77,543,000 after buying an additional 35,500 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 327.7% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 981,623 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $64,129,000 after buying an additional 752,133 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 46.6% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 828,664 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $63,028,000 after acquiring an additional 263,276 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 16.6% in the 1st quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 738,664 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $48,257,000 after acquiring an additional 105,164 shares in the last quarter. 92.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on CCOI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Cogent Communications in a research report on Monday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $56.00 price objective for the company. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Cogent Communications from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $88.00 to $80.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $73.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded Cogent Communications from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $73.57.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of Cogent Communications stock opened at $54.78 on Wednesday. Cogent Communications has a twelve month low of $50.80 and a twelve month high of $86.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.80, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market cap of $2.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.41. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $66.71.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 9th. The technology company reported ($1.29) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.10) by ($0.19). Cogent Communications had a net margin of 114.09% and a negative return on equity of 24.63%. The company had revenue of $266.17 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $274.13 million. As a group, research analysts expect that Cogent Communications will post -4.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 23rd were paid a dividend of $0.975 per share. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.97. This represents a $3.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.12%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 22nd. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 15.45%.

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.