Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Short Interest Down 6.0% in September

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Cogent Communications

In related news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,373,038 shares of the company's stock, valued at $318,444,627.16. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.82, for a total transaction of $4,369,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,373,038 shares in the company, valued at $318,444,627.16. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Lewis H. Ferguson sold 1,550 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.62, for a total value of $112,561.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 17,748 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,288,859.76. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. 11.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cogent Communications

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 40.1% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 17,618 shares of the technology company's stock worth $1,338,000 after acquiring an additional 5,043 shares during the last quarter. Capital Insight Partners LLC grew its stake in Cogent Communications by 0.5% in the third quarter. Capital Insight Partners LLC now owns 62,952 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $4,779,000 after purchasing an additional 331 shares in the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Cogent Communications by 72.9% in the 3rd quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 536 shares of the technology company's stock worth $41,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 207.0% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 660 shares of the technology company's stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 445 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 20.4% during the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 11,230 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $853,000 after buying an additional 1,900 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CCOI. Bank of America downgraded shares of Cogent Communications from a "neutral" rating to an "underperform" rating and cut their price target for the company from $75.00 to $65.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Citigroup lifted their price target 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. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $74.00 price objective on shares of Cogent Communications in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their target price on Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $77.14.

Cogent Communications Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of CCOI traded up $1.65 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $83.66. The company's stock had a trading volume of 310,007 shares, compared to its average volume of 449,247. The company has a market cap of $4.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 0.41. The business has a fifty day moving average of $73.85 and a 200 day moving average of $65.39. The company has a quick ratio of 2.20, a current ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. Cogent Communications has a 1 year low of $50.80 and a 1 year high of $86.00.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The technology company reported ($0.68) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $260.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $264.32 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.13) EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Cogent Communications will post -4.46 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, September 6th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 22nd were given a dividend of $0.985 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 22nd. This is an increase from Cogent Communications's previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. This represents a $3.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.71%. Cogent Communications's payout ratio is presently 15.61%.

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.

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