Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 297 Shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System trimmed its stake in shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) by 1.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 15,728 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 297 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Cogent Communications were worth $1,196,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Harspring Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Cogent Communications by 71.1% in the 3rd quarter. Harspring Capital Management LLC now owns 984,000 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $60,910,000 after acquiring an additional 409,000 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Cogent Communications by 58.9% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake 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 buying an additional 263,276 shares during the period. Global Alpha Capital Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Cogent Communications during the third quarter valued at approximately $14,447,000. Finally, Ceredex Value Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Cogent Communications in the fourth quarter worth $10,424,000. Institutional investors own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Bank of America lowered shares of Cogent Communications from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $85.00 to $75.00 in a report on Thursday, March 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Cogent Communications from $74.00 to $73.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on Cogent Communications from $81.00 to $84.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of Cogent Communications from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded shares of Cogent Communications from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. One investment 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. According to MarketBeat, Cogent Communications currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $77.57.

Cogent Communications Trading Up 0.5 %

NASDAQ CCOI opened at $63.40 on Thursday. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 12 month low of $57.35 and a 12 month 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 stock’s fifty day moving average price is $65.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $69.48. The stock has a market cap of $3.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.39.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported ($0.16) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.95) by $0.79. The company had revenue of $272.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $275.82 million. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 135.34% and a negative return on equity of 23.66%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -3.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.965 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $3.86 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.09%. This is an increase from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.96. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 14.43%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cogent Communications news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 8,826 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.55, for a total transaction of $640,326.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 4,815,764 shares in the company, valued at approximately $349,383,678.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Cogent Communications news, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 8,826 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.55, for a total transaction of $640,326.30. Following 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 through this hyperlink. Also, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 2,400 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.47, for a total transaction of $176,328.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 41,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,012,270. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 69,320 shares of company stock worth $4,669,997 in the last three months. Insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

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.