Principal Financial Group Inc. Lowers Position in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its position in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) by 4.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 199,961 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 10,040 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Cogent Communications were worth $15,181,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CCOI. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 25.7% in the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 12,021 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $785,000 after purchasing an additional 2,454 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 265.9% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 7,805 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $510,000 after purchasing an additional 5,672 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake 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 buying an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System raised its stake in Cogent Communications by 55.6% during 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 buying an additional 8,223 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp purchased a new position in Cogent Communications during the first quarter valued at $494,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CCOI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America cut Cogent Communications from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $75.00 to $65.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on Cogent Communications from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $74.00 target price on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Cogent Communications from $70.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.25.

Cogent Communications Trading Up 2.0 %

CCOI opened at $79.40 on Friday. 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’s 50 day simple moving average is $78.20 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $68.12. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $50.80 and a 1-year high of $86.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 101.79 and a beta of 0.40.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $258.69 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($1.13) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 22nd. This represents a $3.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.01%. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. Cogent Communications’s payout ratio is presently 505.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.77, for a total value of $133,958.40. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 50,982 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,557,014.14. The trade was a 3.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP John B. Chang sold 2,280 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.41, for a total transaction of $183,334.80. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 69,300 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,572,413. The trade was a 3.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 68,500 shares of company stock worth $5,008,175. Corporate insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

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.