Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Lowers Stake in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lowered its stake in shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 14,715 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 431 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Cogent Communications were worth $831,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CCOI. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 500.1% during the 1st quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,051,568 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $68,699,000 after buying an additional 876,326 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 327.7% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 981,623 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $64,129,000 after buying an additional 752,133 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Cogent Communications in the 4th quarter worth $50,430,000. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. purchased a new position in Cogent Communications in the 4th quarter worth $48,184,000. Finally, M&G Plc purchased a new position in Cogent Communications in the 1st quarter worth $27,942,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 2,400 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total transaction of $134,400.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 38,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,161,600. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 2,400 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.00, for a total transaction of $134,400.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 38,600 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,161,600. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.60, for a total transaction of $3,276,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,493,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $245,319,874.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 186,350 shares of company stock valued at $11,125,201. Corporate insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CCOI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Bank of America cut shares of Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $75.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Wednesday, August 21st. KeyCorp lifted their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $56.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Two 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Cogent Communications presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $75.86.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of Cogent Communications stock opened at $69.98 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $3.43 billion, a PE ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.41. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $50.80 and a 12-month high of $86.00. The company has a quick ratio of 2.20, a current ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.43. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $65.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $64.43.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The technology company reported ($0.68) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.27) by $0.59. The business had revenue of $260.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $264.32 million. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 4.26% and a negative return on equity of 32.14%. The company’s revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.13) EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.66 EPS for the current year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.985 per share. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.98. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 22nd. This represents a $3.94 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.63%. 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.