Vest Financial LLC Grows Position in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. $CCOI

Vest Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) by 90.3% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 10,179 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,831 shares during the quarter. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in Cogent Communications were worth $491,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of CCOI. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 35.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,047 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 274 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications in the first quarter valued at about $695,000. Good Steward Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications in the first quarter valued at about $277,000. TrueMark Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications in the first quarter valued at about $551,000. Finally, Consolidated Planning Corp grew its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 62.3% in the first quarter. Consolidated Planning Corp now owns 18,325 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,124,000 after purchasing an additional 7,037 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on CCOI shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $40.00 price objective for the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective (down previously from $74.00) on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Friday, August 8th. Citigroup cut shares of Cogent Communications from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $67.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of 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, August 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cogent Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.60.

Insider Transactions at Cogent Communications

In other news, Director Sheryl Lynn Kennedy sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.35, for a total transaction of $72,700.00. Following the sale, the director owned 10,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $364,117.95. This represents a 16.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 2,400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total transaction of $88,776.00. Following the sale, the vice president directly owned 36,200 shares in the company, valued at $1,339,038. This represents a 6.22% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,663,978 shares of company stock valued at $82,687,283. 11.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cogent Communications Trading Up 2.5%

NASDAQ CCOI opened at $45.10 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $38.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $46.13. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $29.61 and a 12 month high of $86.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 49.06, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 2.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.22 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.93 and a beta of 0.77.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last posted its 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). Cogent Communications had a negative net margin of 21.57% and a negative return on equity of 117.56%. The company had revenue of $246.25 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $247.79 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.68) EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 earnings per share for the current year.

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 a boost from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.01. This represents a $4.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 9.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 21st. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently -89.43%.

Cogent Communications announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, August 7th that allows the company to buyback $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the technology company to buy up to 4.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are 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.