Vest Financial LLC Purchases 50,276 Shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. $CCOI

Key Points

• Vest Financial LLC boosted its stake in Cogent Communications by 206.4%, buying 50,276 shares to hold 74,634 shares worth about $1.61 million, and institutional investors now own roughly 92.45% of the stock.
• Analysts are mixed: the consensus rating is a Hold with an average price target of $26.67, though several firms have recently cut price targets while a few maintain Buy/Outperform calls.
• Fundamentals remain challenged—Cogent reported Q4 EPS of -$0.64 (beating estimates) with revenue down 4.7% and negative margins/ROE—while insiders sold about 12,756 shares last quarter and the stock trades near $22.65 (market cap ~$1.13B).

Vest Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI - Free Report) by 206.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 74,634 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 50,276 shares during the quarter. Vest Financial LLC owned 0.15% of Cogent Communications worth $1,609,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CCOI. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 64.9% during the third quarter. Turtle Creek Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,603,933 shares of the technology company's stock worth $176,561,000 after purchasing an additional 1,811,222 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 551.2% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,146,417 shares of the technology company's stock worth $43,965,000 after purchasing an additional 970,367 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 84.2% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,003,273 shares of the technology company's stock worth $48,368,000 after acquiring an additional 458,698 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 369.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 539,770 shares of the technology company's stock worth $20,700,000 after acquiring an additional 424,746 shares during the period. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 144.2% during the second quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 687,839 shares of the technology company's stock worth $33,161,000 after acquiring an additional 406,129 shares during the period. 92.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CCOI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Cogent Communications from a "strong sell" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Sunday, April 26th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $30.00 to $25.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Oppenheimer dropped their price objective on shares of Cogent Communications from $40.00 to $30.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 23rd. TD Cowen restated a "buy" rating on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Williams Trading set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $26.67.

Insider Activity

In other news, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 2,400 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.35, for a total transaction of $56,040.00. Following the transaction, the vice president directly owned 41,000 shares in the company, valued at $957,350. The trade was a 5.53% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Thaddeus Gerard Weed sold 4,850 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.63, for a total transaction of $109,755.50. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 202,750 shares in the company, valued at $4,588,232.50. This represents a 2.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 12,756 shares of company stock valued at $292,467 over the last quarter. 4.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Cogent Communications Trading Down 3.5%

Shares of CCOI stock opened at $22.65 on Friday. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $15.96 and a 1 year high of $56.88. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $20.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $24.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.13 billion, a P/E ratio of -5.94 and a beta of 0.77.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 20th. The technology company reported ($0.64) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.09) by $0.45. Cogent Communications had a negative net margin of 18.67% and a negative return on equity of 842.48%. The firm had revenue of $240.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $243.82 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.91) EPS. The company's revenue was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -3.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 6th were paid a dividend of $0.02 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 6th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.4%. Cogent Communications's payout ratio is currently -2.10%.

Cogent Communications Company Profile

Cogent Communications NASDAQ: CCOI is a multinational Internet service provider specializing in high-speed Internet access and data transport services. The company operates one of the largest Tier 1 IP networks in the world, offering wholesale and enterprise customers reliable, low-latency connectivity. Cogent's core services include dedicated Internet access, Ethernet transport, wavelength services, and MPLS-based IP Virtual Private Networks, all delivered over its privately owned, fiber-optic backbone.

In addition to network connectivity, Cogent provides data center colocation and managed services designed to support businesses with demanding bandwidth and redundancy requirements.

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