Meitav Investment House Ltd. Cuts Stock Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Meitav Investment House Ltd. cut its position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 11.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 14,450 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,883 shares during the quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $2,991,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 693,369 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $131,712,000 after acquiring an additional 47,412 shares during the period. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors purchased a new stake in VeriSign during the fourth quarter valued at $141,129,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in VeriSign by 26.3% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 580,613 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $110,293,000 after acquiring an additional 120,958 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in VeriSign by 1.8% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 527,551 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $100,214,000 after buying an additional 9,574 shares during the period. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its position in VeriSign by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 428,647 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $81,426,000 after acquiring an additional 46,677 shares during the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

VeriSign Stock Up 0.2 %

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $231.73 on Thursday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $167.04 and a 52 week high of $232.48. The company has a market capitalization of $21.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.97 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $210.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $192.94.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.00. VeriSign had a net margin of 50.47% and a negative return on equity of 43.01%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Baird R W upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th.

About VeriSign

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.