Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 4,200,000 shares, a decrease of 6.0% from the September 15th total of 4,470,000 shares. Currently, 9.5% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 440,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 9.5 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CCOI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $75.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $77.14.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.82, for a total value of $4,369,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,373,038 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $318,444,627.16. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, VP John B. Chang sold 1,400 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.67, for a total transaction of $100,338.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 71,580 shares in the company, valued at $5,130,138.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.82, for a total transaction of $4,369,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,373,038 shares in the company, valued at $318,444,627.16. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 64,870 shares of company stock worth $4,716,057. Company insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cogent Communications

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Cogent Communications by 46.2% in the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,537,196 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $86,759,000 after buying an additional 485,628 shares during the period. Harspring Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 6.0% during the 2nd quarter. Harspring Capital Management LLC now owns 1,176,500 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $66,402,000 after purchasing an additional 66,500 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its holdings in Cogent Communications by 2,739.1% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,035,261 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $58,430,000 after purchasing an additional 998,796 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Cogent Communications by 327.7% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 981,623 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $64,129,000 after purchasing an additional 752,133 shares during the period. Finally, Hood River Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Cogent Communications by 18.9% during the 2nd quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 874,174 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $49,338,000 after buying an additional 138,680 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Cogent Communications Stock Up 1.5 %

Cogent Communications stock opened at $84.95 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.20, a current ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The company has a market capitalization of $4.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.41. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $74.17 and a 200-day moving average price of $65.53. Cogent Communications has a twelve month low of $50.80 and a twelve month high of $86.00.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The technology company reported ($0.68) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.27) by $0.59. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 32.14% and a net margin of 4.26%. The business had revenue of $260.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $264.32 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.13) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Cogent Communications will post -4.46 EPS for the current year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.985 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 22nd. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. This represents a $3.94 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.64%. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 15.61%.

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.