Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Sells 5,620 Shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. $CCOI

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. cut its holdings in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) by 1.1% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 503,724 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 5,620 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned about 1.02% of Cogent Communications worth $30,883,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. grew its holdings in Cogent Communications by 15.3% during the first quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 673,921 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $41,318,000 after purchasing an additional 89,536 shares during the period. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in Cogent Communications by 15.7% during the first quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 808,061 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $49,542,000 after purchasing an additional 109,543 shares during the period. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Cogent Communications by 105.9% during the first quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 4,981 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $305,000 after purchasing an additional 2,562 shares during the period. Prairieview Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in Cogent Communications by 3.7% during the first quarter. Prairieview Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,142 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $683,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in Cogent Communications by 2.2% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 47,386 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,905,000 after purchasing an additional 1,003 shares during the period. 92.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CCOI has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Cogent Communications from $102.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price objective on Cogent Communications from $71.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Citigroup downgraded Cogent Communications from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $67.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Cogent Communications from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $45.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $40.00 target price (down previously from $74.00) on shares of Cogent Communications in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $58.57.

Insider Transactions at Cogent Communications

In other Cogent Communications news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 1,840,669 shares of Cogent Communications 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 sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,516,052 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,423,295.20. The trade was a 54.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In the last quarter, insiders sold 3,105,078 shares of company stock worth $103,810,876. 10.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CCOI opened at $37.75 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.86 billion, a P/E ratio of -8.31 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a quick ratio of 2.31, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 49.06. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.93. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a twelve month low of $29.61 and a twelve month high of $86.76.

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

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 21st. This represents a $4.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 10.8%. This is a boost from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.01. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -88.99%.

Cogent Communications declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, August 7th that allows the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to repurchase up to 4.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.