Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Cut to “Sell” at StockNews.com

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday.

A number of other analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Bank of America lowered shares of Cogent Communications from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $85.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, March 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $74.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $81.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $85.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Cogent Communications from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $77.57.

Cogent Communications Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CCOI opened at $65.79 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $67.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $69.46. Cogent Communications has a 12-month low of $57.35 and a 12-month high of $86.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.24.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported ($0.16) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $272.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $275.82 million. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Cogent Communications will post -3.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 shares were sold at an average price of $76.62, for a total value of $147,110.40. Following the completion of the sale, the executive now directly owns 54,822 shares in the company, valued at $4,200,461.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 26,174 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.21, for a total transaction of $1,680,632.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,653,203 shares in the company, valued at $298,782,164.63. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CRO James Bubeck sold 1,920 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.62, for a total transaction of $147,110.40. Following the transaction, the executive now owns 54,822 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,200,461.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 69,320 shares of company stock worth $4,669,997 over the last three months. Company insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Cogent Communications

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 58.9% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 710,612 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $43,987,000 after acquiring an additional 263,313 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 46.6% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 828,664 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $63,028,000 after acquiring an additional 263,276 shares in the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 107.2% during the third quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 46,822 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,898,000 after acquiring an additional 24,226 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates increased its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 7.0% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 630,300 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $47,941,000 after acquiring an additional 41,104 shares in the last quarter. Finally, River Road Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC now owns 417,801 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,778,000 after acquiring an additional 36,288 shares in the last quarter. 92.45% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.