Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Director Lewis Ferguson Sells 4,000 Shares of Stock

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) Director Lewis Ferguson sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.34, for a total value of $81,360.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 19,267 shares in the company, valued at $391,890.78. The trade was a 17.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

NASDAQ:CCOI opened at $19.99 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $981.91 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.90 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 49.06, a current ratio of 2.02 and a quick ratio of 2.02. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.19. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.96 and a 1 year high of $84.06.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The technology company reported ($0.87) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.15) by $0.28. The company had revenue of $241.95 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $246.13 million. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 208.70% and a negative net margin of 19.72%.Cogent Communications’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($1.33) EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 EPS for the current year.

Cogent Communications declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, August 7th that permits the company to buyback $100.00 million in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the technology company to purchase up to 4.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Cogent Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Investors of record on Friday, November 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.02 per share. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 21st. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently -1.96%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cogent Communications

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CCOI. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Cogent Communications during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. AlphaQuest LLC bought a new position in Cogent Communications during the 1st quarter worth about $36,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC increased its position in Cogent Communications by 297.8% during the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 740 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 554 shares during the period. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp bought a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, Byrne Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,000. 92.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on CCOI. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $40.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $27.00 price objective (down previously from $50.00) on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Friday, November 7th. KeyCorp reduced their target price on Cogent Communications from $65.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $33.00 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Cogent Communications has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $25.71.

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.