Insider Selling: Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) VP Sells $362,928.00 in Stock

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 4,800 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were 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. This represents a 12.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CCOI opened at $77.29 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $81.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $70.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.79 billion, a PE ratio of 99.09 and a beta of 0.39. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $50.80 and a fifty-two week high of $86.76. 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 released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.34) by $0.01. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 3.73% and a negative return on equity of 36.31%. The company had revenue of $257.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $258.69 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($1.13) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were paid a $0.995 dividend. This represents a $3.98 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.15%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently 510.26%.

Institutional Trading of Cogent Communications

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CCOI. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 204.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 405 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 272 shares during the period. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 72.9% in the 3rd quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 536 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Cogent Communications in the 3rd quarter valued at $46,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Cogent Communications by 207.0% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 660 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 445 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CCOI has been the topic of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 price objective on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. KeyCorp upped their price target on Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Finally, Bank of America lowered shares of Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $80.25.

Cogent Communications Company 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.