Raymond James Financial Inc. Buys Shares of 516,993 Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI)

Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 516,993 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,845,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. owned approximately 1.05% of Cogent Communications at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Cogent Communications during the 4th quarter valued at about $46,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 53.8% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 623 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 218 shares in the last quarter. BankPlus Trust Department purchased a new position in Cogent Communications during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $63,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its stake in Cogent Communications by 132.1% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 875 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Cogent Communications by 212.3% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,493 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $113,000 after buying an additional 1,015 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com raised Cogent Communications to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cogent Communications presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $80.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cogent Communications news, Director Sheryl Lynn Kennedy sold 1,425 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $72.96, for a total transaction of $103,968.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,147 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $740,325.12. This trade represents a 12.31 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 2,400 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $72.57, for a total transaction of $174,168.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now owns 41,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,975,370. The trade was a 5.53 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 11,681 shares of company stock valued at $840,878. 10.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of CCOI stock opened at $53.44 on Wednesday. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $47.54 and a fifty-two week high of $86.76. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $2.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 68.51 and a beta of 0.69. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $68.53 and its 200-day simple moving average is $74.85.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The technology company reported ($0.91) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.22) by $0.31. The company had revenue of $252.29 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $258.49 million. Cogent Communications had a net margin of 3.73% and a negative return on equity of 36.31%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 13th were paid a $1.005 dividend. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $4.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.52%. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -93.49%.

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.