ARS Investment Partners LLC Has $539,000 Stock Holdings in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI)

ARS Investment Partners LLC decreased its holdings in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) by 24.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,000 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 2,250 shares during the quarter. ARS Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Cogent Communications were worth $539,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in CCOI. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 2,739.1% in the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,035,261 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $58,430,000 after buying an additional 998,796 shares in the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 46.2% in the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,537,196 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $86,759,000 after buying an additional 485,628 shares in the last quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 18.9% in the 2nd quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 874,174 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $49,338,000 after purchasing an additional 138,680 shares during the last quarter. AYAL Capital Advisors Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Cogent Communications in the 2nd quarter worth about $6,372,000. Finally, Verition Fund Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 136.5% in the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 145,223 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $11,025,000 after purchasing an additional 83,816 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Cogent Communications

In related news, Director Sheryl Lynn Kennedy sold 1,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.58, for a total value of $108,783.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,318 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $831,424.44. This trade represents a 11.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Lewis H. Ferguson sold 846 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.76, for a total transaction of $69,168.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,354 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,500,623.04. This represents a 4.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 24,136 shares of company stock valued at $1,939,749 in the last ninety days. 11.00% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Cogent Communications Stock Performance

Shares of CCOI stock opened at $72.60 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.03. The company has a market capitalization of $3.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 93.08 and a beta of 0.40. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $77.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $74.67. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $50.80 and a 52 week high of $86.76.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The technology company reported ($1.33) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.34) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $257.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $258.69 million. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 3.73% and a negative return on equity of 36.31%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned ($1.13) EPS. On average, analysts expect that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.995 per share. This is a boost from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.99. This represents a $3.98 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 22nd. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 510.26%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CCOI has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Thursday, November 14th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $102.00 target price on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Cogent Communications from $62.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $80.25.

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.