Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. $CCOI Shares Sold by Vanguard Group Inc.

Vanguard Group Inc. decreased its position in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) by 1.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,056,772 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 57,824 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 10.24% of Cogent Communications worth $310,031,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 58.9% in the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 618 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 35.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,047 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 274 shares in the last quarter. Syon Capital LLC purchased a new position in Cogent Communications in the fourth quarter valued at $214,000. Xponance Inc. raised its stake in Cogent Communications by 9.7% in the first quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 3,497 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $214,000 after buying an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TradeLink Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Cogent Communications by 14.4% during the 1st quarter. TradeLink Capital LLC now owns 3,498 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $214,000 after buying an additional 440 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Cogent Communications news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 1,840,669 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.60, for a total transaction of $60,005,809.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,516,052 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,423,295.20. This represents a 54.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 3,105,078 shares of company stock worth $103,810,876 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 10.20% of the company’s stock.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CCOI opened at $34.25 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $1.68 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.54 and a beta of 0.68. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $29.61 and a twelve month high of $86.76. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $46.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.33. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 49.06.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The technology company reported ($1.21) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.93) by ($0.28). The business had revenue of $246.25 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $247.79 million. Cogent Communications had a negative net margin of 21.57% and a negative return on equity of 117.56%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.68) EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Cogent Communications announced that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, August 7th that authorizes the company to buyback $100.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to reacquire up to 4.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st will be issued a dividend of $1.015 per share. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.01. This represents a $4.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 11.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 21st. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is -88.99%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on CCOI shares. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Cogent Communications from $102.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 9th. Citigroup lowered shares of Cogent Communications from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $67.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective (down previously from $74.00) on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $71.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.83.

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.