Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

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

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 25.7% in the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 12,021 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $785,000 after buying an additional 2,454 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its position in Cogent Communications by 265.9% during the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 7,805 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $510,000 after acquiring an additional 5,672 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in Cogent Communications by 1.3% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 92,427 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $6,038,000 after acquiring an additional 1,200 shares in the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 55.6% in the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 23,015 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,467,000 after purchasing an additional 8,223 shares during the period. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp bought a new position in shares of Cogent Communications in the first quarter valued at approximately $494,000. Institutional investors own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of CCOI opened at $79.40 on Friday. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $50.80 and a 1 year 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 2.03. The company has a market capitalization of $3.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 101.79 and a beta of 0.40. The business has a 50-day moving average of $78.20 and a 200-day moving average of $68.12.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) 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 negative return on equity of 36.31% and a net margin of 3.73%. The business had revenue of $257.20 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $258.69 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($1.13) earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 6th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 22nd will be paid a $0.995 dividend. This represents a $3.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.01%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 505.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Cogent Communications

In other news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $318,444,627.16. This represents a 1.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP John B. Chang sold 2,280 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.41, for a total value of $183,334.80. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 69,300 shares in the company, valued at $5,572,413. This represents a 3.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,008,175 in the last quarter. 11.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. KeyCorp boosted their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 target price on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.25.

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.