Principal Financial Group Inc. Cuts Holdings in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI)

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI - Free Report) by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 199,961 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 10,040 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.41% of Cogent Communications worth $15,181,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CCOI. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. raised its position in Cogent Communications by 0.5% during the third quarter. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. now owns 41,079 shares of the technology company's stock worth $3,119,000 after acquiring an additional 185 shares during the period. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 72.9% during 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. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its stake in Cogent Communications by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 4,984 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $378,000 after buying an additional 262 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in Cogent Communications by 204.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 405 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 272 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capstone Triton Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Cogent Communications by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Capstone Triton Financial Group LLC now owns 10,401 shares of the technology company's stock worth $790,000 after buying an additional 313 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on CCOI shares. UBS Group started coverage on Cogent Communications in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $102.00 target price on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $74.00 target price on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $80.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cogent Communications

In related news, Director Lewis H. Ferguson sold 846 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.76, for a total transaction of $69,168.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,354 shares in the company, valued at $1,500,623.04. This trade represents a 4.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Blake Bath sold 6,220 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $83.69, for a total transaction of $520,551.80. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 24,136 shares of company stock valued at $1,939,749 over the last 90 days. 11.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cogent Communications Trading Down 0.5 %

Cogent Communications stock traded down $0.36 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $75.77. 312,612 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 439,602. The company has a current ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $79.85 and its 200 day simple moving average is $72.10. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $50.80 and a fifty-two week high of $86.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 97.14 and a beta of 0.39.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.34) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $257.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $258.69 million. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 3.73% and a negative return on equity of 36.31%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($1.13) EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 EPS for the current year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a $0.995 dividend. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications's previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. This represents a $3.98 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.25%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 22nd. Cogent Communications's payout ratio is 510.26%.

Cogent Communications 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.