CX Institutional Raises Stock Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

CX Institutional lifted its position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 5.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 57 shares during the period. CX Institutional’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $243,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Empirical Finance LLC grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 3,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $577,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,537 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $259,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 24,148 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,587,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 3,832 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $728,000 after buying an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ VRSN opened at $210.73 on Monday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $198.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $187.97. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12 month low of $167.04 and a 12 month high of $213.68. The stock has a market cap of $20.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.50 and a beta of 0.89.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The information services provider reported $2.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.01 by $0.06. VeriSign had a net margin of 55.74% and a negative return on equity of 45.59%. The firm had revenue of $390.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $390.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.83 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSN has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Baird R W raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of VeriSign from $210.00 to $238.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total transaction of $402,563.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 26,157 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,033,391.51. This represents a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

VeriSign Company Profile

VeriSign, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides domain name registry services and internet infrastructure that enables internet navigation for various recognized domain names worldwide. The company enables the security, stability, and resiliency of internet infrastructure and services, including providing root zone maintainer services, operating two of thirteen internet root servers; and offering registration services and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net domains, which supports global e-commerce.