Stifel Financial Corp Reduces Position in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI)

Stifel Financial Corp lessened its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) by 10.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 54,427 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 6,479 shares during the quarter. Stifel Financial Corp’s holdings in Cogent Communications were worth $4,132,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of CCOI. Parallax Volatility Advisers L.P. grew its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 48.0% in the third quarter. Parallax Volatility Advisers L.P. now owns 11,795 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $895,000 after purchasing an additional 3,825 shares in the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in Cogent Communications in the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Cinctive Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Cogent Communications during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,425,000. Atom Investors LP bought a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications during the third quarter valued at about $4,565,000. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications in the third quarter worth about $4,325,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Cogent Communications news, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 4,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.61, for a total value of $362,928.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 33,800 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,555,618. The trade was a 12.44 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Blake Bath sold 6,220 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.69, for a total value of $520,551.80. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $836,900. This trade represents a 38.35 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 24,136 shares of company stock valued at $1,939,749. Insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their price objective 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. Bank of America cut shares of Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $75.00 to $65.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Finally, UBS Group began coverage on Cogent Communications in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. They set a “buy” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.25.

Cogent Communications Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ CCOI opened at $77.29 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 99.09 and a beta of 0.39. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $50.80 and a one year high of $86.76. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $81.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $70.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a current ratio of 2.03 and a quick ratio of 2.03.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last released its 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 company 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was down 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($1.13) EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were issued a $0.995 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.98 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.15%. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. Cogent Communications’s payout ratio is currently 510.26%.

About Cogent Communications

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.