Insider Selling: Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) VP Sells 4,800 Shares of Stock

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 4,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.61, for a total value of $362,928.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 33,800 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,555,618. The trade was a 12.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Cogent Communications Stock Performance

Shares of CCOI stock traded up $0.24 during trading on Friday, reaching $75.67. 14,294 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 436,568. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $80.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $70.69. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $50.80 and a twelve month high of $86.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.71 billion, a PE ratio of 95.79 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a quick ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.34) by $0.01. The business had revenue of $257.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $258.69 million. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 36.31% and a net margin of 3.73%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($1.13) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 EPS for the current year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were given a dividend of $0.995 per share. This represents a $3.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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 presently 510.26%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cogent Communications

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CCOI. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 85.7% in the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 16,908 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,284,000 after purchasing an additional 7,803 shares in the last quarter. Consolidated Planning Corp bought a new position in Cogent Communications in the third quarter valued at about $630,000. PEAK6 Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications during the third quarter worth $1,720,000. Citigroup Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 56.8% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 56,595 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,297,000 after buying an additional 20,510 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Financial Mangement LLC increased its holdings in Cogent Communications by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC now owns 609,821 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $46,298,000 after purchasing an additional 16,527 shares in the last quarter. 92.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on CCOI. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Citigroup raised their price target on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. UBS Group began coverage on shares of 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 cut shares of Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average 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.