Renaissance Technologies LLC Sells 155,400 Shares of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI)

Renaissance Technologies LLC decreased its stake in Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CCOI) by 17.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 739,756 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 155,400 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in Cogent Communications were worth $57,013,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Cogent Communications by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,114,596 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $394,182,000 after purchasing an additional 43,523 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 509,344 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,255,000 after purchasing an additional 11,858 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Cogent Communications by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 206,196 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,892,000 after purchasing an additional 6,235 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its stake in Cogent Communications by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 19,596 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,510,000 after acquiring an additional 2,009 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new position in Cogent Communications in the 4th quarter valued at $382,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.45% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Cogent Communications news, VP Henry W. Kilmer sold 2,400 shares of the company’s 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. This represents a 5.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Lewis H. Ferguson sold 956 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.36, for a total value of $66,308.16. Following the sale, the director now owns 18,652 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,293,702.72. This represents a 4.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,681 shares of company stock worth $840,878 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Cogent Communications Price Performance

Shares of Cogent Communications stock opened at $53.83 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $70.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $75.47. Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $47.54 and a 52 week high of $86.76. The company has a market capitalization of $2.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 69.01 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a quick ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.87.

Cogent Communications (NASDAQ:CCOI) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 analysts’ expectations of $258.49 million. Cogent Communications had a negative return on equity of 36.31% and a net margin of 3.73%. As a group, analysts expect that Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc. will post -4.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Cogent Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $1.005 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $4.02 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.47%. This is a positive change from Cogent Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. Cogent Communications’s dividend payout ratio is currently -93.49%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.