Asset Management One Co. Ltd. Acquires 19,394 Shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. $CCOI

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its position in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) by 43.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 63,555 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,394 shares during the quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. owned approximately 0.13% of Cogent Communications worth $3,064,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. acquired a new stake in Cogent Communications in the second quarter worth about $356,000. Triton Financial Group Inc acquired a new stake in Cogent Communications in the second quarter worth about $765,000. Magnolia Group LLC acquired a new stake in Cogent Communications in the second quarter worth about $52,704,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. acquired a new stake in Cogent Communications in the second quarter worth about $351,000. Finally, Vest Financial LLC increased its position in Cogent Communications by 90.3% in the second quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 10,179 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $491,000 after purchasing an additional 4,831 shares during the period. 92.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Cogent Communications

In other news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 818,909 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.50, for a total transaction of $22,519,997.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 697,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,171,432.50. This trade represents a 54.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sheryl Lynn Kennedy sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.35, for a total value of $72,700.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 10,017 shares in the company, valued at approximately $364,117.95. This represents a 16.64% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 2,663,978 shares of company stock valued at $82,687,283 over the last 90 days. 11.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on CCOI. Citigroup lowered Cogent Communications from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $67.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. 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 report on Friday, August 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Cogent Communications in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $40.00 target price on the stock. Finally, 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 report on Monday, August 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cogent Communications presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.60.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of CCOI opened at $42.99 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $2.11 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.47 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 49.06. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $39.97 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $45.17. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $29.61 and a 1 year high of $86.76.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.93) by ($0.28). The business had revenue of $246.25 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $247.79 million. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 117.56% and a negative net margin of 21.57%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.68) EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Cogent Communications announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, August 7th that permits the company to repurchase $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology company to buy up to 4.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 21st were given 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 9.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 21st. Cogent Communications’s payout ratio is -89.43%.

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.