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

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI - Get Free Report) was the target of a large decline in short interest during the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,140,000 shares, a decline of 17.4% from the November 30th total of 3,800,000 shares. Approximately 7.1% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 398,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.9 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on CCOI. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $74.00 price objective on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, UBS Group began coverage on Cogent Communications in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. They set a "buy" rating and a $102.00 price objective on the stock. Two equities 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 company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $80.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cogent Communications

In related news, VP John B. Chang sold 2,280 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.41, for a total value of $183,334.80. Following the transaction, the vice president now owns 69,300 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,572,413. This trade represents a 3.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Sheryl Lynn Kennedy sold 1,350 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.58, for a total transaction of $108,783.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,318 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $831,424.44. This represents a 11.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 24,136 shares of company stock worth $1,939,749. Insiders own 11.40% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 1.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,750,810 shares of the technology company's stock worth $132,921,000 after buying an additional 22,738 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. increased its stake in Cogent Communications by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,542,503 shares of the technology company's stock worth $117,107,000 after acquiring an additional 5,307 shares during the last quarter. Harspring Capital Management LLC raised its holdings 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 worth $66,402,000 after acquiring an additional 66,500 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,039,458 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $78,916,000 after acquiring an additional 4,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 0.3% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,014,322 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $77,021,000 after purchasing an additional 3,093 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.45% of the company's stock.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

NASDAQ:CCOI traded up $1.15 on Tuesday, reaching $77.07. 554,160 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 439,782. The firm has a market cap of $3.78 billion, a PE ratio of 98.81 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 stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $72.53. Cogent Communications has a 12 month low of $50.80 and a 12 month high of $86.76.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $257.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $258.69 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($1.13) EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Cogent Communications will post -4.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a $0.995 dividend. 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 yield of 5.16%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. Cogent Communications's payout ratio is currently 510.26%.

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.

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