Verition Fund Management LLC Grows Holdings in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI)

Verition Fund Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI - Free Report) by 136.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 145,223 shares of the technology company's stock after buying an additional 83,816 shares during the quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC owned about 0.30% of Cogent Communications worth $11,025,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 204.5% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 405 shares of the technology company's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 272 shares during the period. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in Cogent Communications by 72.9% during the third quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 536 shares of the technology company's stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 127.5% in the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 787 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 441 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Cogent Communications during the third quarter valued at about $46,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 207.0% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 660 shares of the technology company's stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 445 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.45% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on CCOI. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an "outperform" rating and set a $74.00 price target on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cogent Communications currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $80.25.

Cogent Communications Stock Performance

Shares of CCOI stock traded down $0.38 on Friday, hitting $82.19. 163,688 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 413,195. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $50.80 and a one year high of $86.76. The firm's 50 day moving average is $80.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $69.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.03 billion, a PE ratio of 105.37 and a beta of 0.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.34) by $0.01. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 3.73% and a negative return on equity of 36.31%. The firm had revenue of $257.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $258.69 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($1.13) earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be issued a dividend of $0.995 per share. This is a boost from Cogent Communications's previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.84%. Cogent Communications's payout ratio is presently 510.26%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.77, for a total transaction of $133,958.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive now directly owns 50,982 shares in the company, valued at $3,557,014.14. The trade was a 3.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Blake Bath sold 6,220 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.69, for a total value of $520,551.80. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 10,000 shares in the company, valued at $836,900. This trade represents a 38.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 14,016 shares of company stock worth $1,116,135 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 11.40% of the company's stock.

Cogent Communications Company Profile

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.