Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) Trading Down 6.2% Following Analyst Downgrade

Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI)’s stock price traded down 6.2% during mid-day trading on Monday after The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on the stock from $40.00 to $25.00. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Cogent Communications traded as low as $22.08 and last traded at $22.0250. 1,717,618 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 85% from the average session volume of 925,998 shares. The stock had previously closed at $23.49.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on CCOI. Zacks Research cut shares of Cogent Communications from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. KeyCorp decreased their price target on Cogent Communications from $65.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $27.00 price target (down previously from $45.00) on shares of Cogent Communications in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $40.00 target price (down from $74.00) on shares of Cogent Communications in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Cogent Communications in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Cogent Communications presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $30.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Cogent Communications news, Director Sheryl Lynn Kennedy sold 2,000 shares of Cogent Communications stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.35, for a total transaction of $72,700.00. Following the sale, the director owned 10,017 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $364,117.95. The trade was a 16.64% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 2,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.99, for a total value of $88,776.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president directly owned 36,200 shares in the company, valued at $1,339,038. This represents a 6.22% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Cogent Communications by 5.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,362,821 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $205,664,000 after acquiring an additional 270,975 shares during the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its stake in Cogent Communications by 13.3% during the 2nd quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,279,440 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $109,892,000 after purchasing an additional 267,143 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Cogent Communications by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,788,235 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $86,211,000 after purchasing an additional 13,510 shares in the last quarter. Magnolia Group LLC increased its stake in Cogent Communications by 16.4% in the third quarter. Magnolia Group LLC now owns 1,272,337 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $48,794,000 after acquiring an additional 179,126 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Cogent Communications by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,060,367 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $51,127,000 after acquiring an additional 20,055 shares during the last quarter. 92.45% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Cogent Communications Trading Down 6.0%

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.65 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 49.06, a quick ratio of 2.31 and a current ratio of 2.31. The company has a market capitalization of $1.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.85 and a beta of 0.77.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The technology company reported ($0.87) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.15) by $0.28. The company had revenue of $241.95 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $246.13 million. Cogent Communications had a negative net margin of 21.57% and a negative return on equity of 117.56%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($1.33) earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 21st will be given a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.4%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 21st. Cogent Communications’s payout ratio is presently -99.51%.

Cogent Communications announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, August 7th that authorizes the company to buyback $100.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to repurchase up to 4.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.