7,382 Shares in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. $CCOI Acquired by First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. bought a new position in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 7,382 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $356,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CCOI. Magnolia Group LLC purchased a new stake in Cogent Communications in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $52,704,000. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. grew its holdings in Cogent Communications by 30.4% during the 1st quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 2,012,297 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $123,374,000 after buying an additional 469,028 shares in the last quarter. 14B Captial Management LP grew its holdings in Cogent Communications by 77.8% during the 1st quarter. 14B Captial Management LP now owns 448,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,467,000 after buying an additional 196,000 shares in the last quarter. BlackBarn Capital Partners LP purchased a new stake in Cogent Communications during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $11,649,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Cogent Communications during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $7,859,000. 92.45% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research lowered shares of Cogent Communications from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Cogent Communications from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $45.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, August 18th. Citigroup lowered shares of Cogent Communications from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $67.00 to $33.00 in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Friday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective (down from $74.00) on shares of Cogent Communications in a report on Friday, August 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 2,400 shares of the firm’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 trade represents a 6.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Dave Schaeffer sold 818,909 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.50, for a total value of $22,519,997.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 697,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,171,432.50. This represents a 54.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,663,978 shares of company stock worth $82,687,283 over the last three months. 10.20% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Cogent Communications Stock Up 0.6%

NASDAQ CCOI opened at $42.96 on Monday. 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 $2.11 billion, a P/E ratio of -9.46 and a beta of 0.77. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a one year low of $29.61 and a one year high of $86.76. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $39.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $45.34.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The technology company reported ($1.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.93) by ($0.28). The company had revenue of $246.25 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $247.79 million. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 117.56% and a negative net margin of 21.57%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.68) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 21st were given a $1.015 dividend. This is a boost from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.01. This represents a $4.06 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 9.5%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 21st. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is -89.43%.

Cogent Communications announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, August 7th that authorizes the company to buyback $100.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology company to purchase up to 4.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.