State Street Corp Increases Position in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI)

State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) by 1.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,750,810 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,738 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp owned 3.57% of Cogent Communications worth $132,921,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CCOI. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 16,743 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $945,000 after purchasing an additional 614 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Cogent Communications by 7.2% during the second quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 12,076 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $682,000 after buying an additional 809 shares during the last quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System raised its position in Cogent Communications by 1.9% in the second quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 21,200 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,197,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the period. Capital Insight Partners LLC boosted its stake in Cogent Communications by 0.8% in the second quarter. Capital Insight Partners LLC now owns 62,621 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,534,000 after acquiring an additional 483 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 26.3% during the 2nd quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC now owns 213,814 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $12,068,000 after acquiring an additional 44,500 shares during the period. 92.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Cogent Communications stock opened at $77.29 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 99.09 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a quick ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $81.01 and a 200 day simple moving average of $70.90. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $50.80 and a 52 week high of $86.76.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.34) by $0.01. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 36.31% and a net margin of 3.73%. The company had revenue of $257.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $258.69 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($1.13) earnings per share. Cogent Communications’s revenue was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a dividend of $0.995 per share. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. This represents a $3.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.15%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. Cogent Communications’s payout ratio is currently 510.26%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Sheryl Lynn Kennedy sold 1,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.58, for a total value of $108,783.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,318 shares in the company, valued at $831,424.44. The trade was a 11.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 4,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.61, for a total transaction of $362,928.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 33,800 shares in the company, valued at $2,555,618. The trade was a 12.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 24,136 shares of company stock worth $1,939,749. Corporate insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on CCOI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $74.00 price target on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Bank of America lowered Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $75.00 to $65.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $102.00 target price for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $80.25.

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.