Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Trading Down 4.7% Following Insider Selling

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI - Get Free Report) traded down 4.7% during trading on Wednesday following insider selling activity. The stock traded as low as $47.03 and last traded at $46.88. 417,469 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 15% from the average session volume of 490,187 shares. The stock had previously closed at $49.19.

Specifically, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.67, for a total transaction of $973,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,131,721 shares in the company, valued at $201,090,861.07. This represents a 0.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.27, for a total transaction of $1,156,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 4,176,721 shares in the company, valued at approximately $193,256,880.67. This trade represents a 0.59% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on CCOI shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Cogent Communications to a "sell" rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $102.00 to $75.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $71.00 to $62.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $75.75.

Cogent Communications Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $2.25 billion, a PE ratio of 58.50 and a beta of 0.76. The firm's fifty day moving average is $52.87 and its 200 day moving average is $68.10. The company has a current ratio of 2.03, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The technology company reported ($1.09) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.05) by ($0.04). Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 36.31% and a net margin of 3.73%. The business had revenue of $247.05 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $250.81 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($1.38) EPS. Cogent Communications's quarterly revenue was down 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 6th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 22nd will be paid a dividend of $1.01 per share. This represents a $4.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.85%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 22nd. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications's previous quarterly dividend of $1.01. Cogent Communications's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -100.75%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Cogent Communications by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,114,596 shares of the technology company's stock worth $394,182,000 after buying an additional 43,523 shares during the period. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 30.4% in the first quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,012,297 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $123,374,000 after purchasing an additional 469,028 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 24.1% in the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,897,090 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $146,209,000 after purchasing an additional 368,129 shares during the period. Hood River Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 21.8% in the fourth quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 1,436,855 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $110,738,000 after purchasing an additional 257,383 shares during the period. Finally, DigitalBridge Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 246.0% in the fourth quarter. DigitalBridge Group Inc. now owns 907,916 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $69,973,000 after purchasing an additional 645,521 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% 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.