Van ECK Associates Corp Boosts Stake in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI)

Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) by 4.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 10,445 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 481 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Cogent Communications were worth $860,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new position in Cogent Communications in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position 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 during the period. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted 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 valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 226 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its position in Cogent Communications by 127.5% in the 2nd 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 during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Cogent Communications by 207.0% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 660 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 445 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on CCOI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Bank of America lowered shares of Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $65.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 price objective on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $78.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.14.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CCOI opened at $80.45 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $77.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $67.79. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $50.80 and a 12 month high of $86.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a current ratio of 2.03 and a quick ratio of 2.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 103.14 and a beta of 0.40.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $258.69 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($1.13) EPS. Cogent Communications’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Investors of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.995 per share. 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 4.95%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 22nd. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 505.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cogent Communications

In other Cogent Communications news, VP John B. Chang sold 1,400 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.67, for a total value of $100,338.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 71,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,130,138.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Cogent Communications news, VP John B. Chang sold 1,400 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.67, for a total value of $100,338.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 71,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,130,138.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,373,038 shares in the company, valued at approximately $318,444,627.16. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 64,870 shares of company stock worth $4,716,057. 11.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.