NJ State Employees Deferred Compensation Plan Takes Position in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI)

NJ State Employees Deferred Compensation Plan purchased a new position in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,000 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $228,000.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC raised its stake in Cogent Communications by 58.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 710,612 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $43,987,000 after buying an additional 263,313 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its holdings in Cogent Communications by 46.6% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 828,664 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $63,028,000 after purchasing an additional 263,276 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Cogent Communications by 107.2% in the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 46,822 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,898,000 after buying an additional 24,226 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 7.0% in the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 630,300 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $47,941,000 after purchasing an additional 41,104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, River Road Asset Management LLC grew its position in Cogent Communications by 9.5% during the 4th quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 417,801 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $31,778,000 after purchasing an additional 36,288 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America downgraded Cogent Communications from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. StockNews.com cut shares of Cogent Communications from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Cogent Communications from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. TheStreet upgraded shares of Cogent Communications from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on Cogent Communications from $81.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cogent Communications news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 8,826 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.55, for a total transaction of $640,326.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,815,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $349,383,678.20. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Cogent Communications news, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.62, for a total value of $147,110.40. Following the sale, the executive now directly owns 54,822 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,200,461.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 8,826 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.55, for a total value of $640,326.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 4,815,764 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $349,383,678.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 69,320 shares of company stock worth $4,669,997 in the last quarter. 11.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cogent Communications Trading Up 1.3 %

CCOI stock traded up $0.86 during trading on Friday, reaching $65.79. 283,302 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 406,477. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $67.93 and a 200-day moving average price of $69.45. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $57.35 and a 1 year high of $86.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.39.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.95) by $0.79. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 23.66% and a net margin of 135.34%. The business had revenue of $272.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $275.82 million. On average, research analysts predict that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -3.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.965 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.96. This represents a $3.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.87%. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 14.43%.

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.