Insider Selling: VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) SVP Sells $103,592.25 in Stock

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total transaction of $103,592.25. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

VeriSign Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $235.03 on Friday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52-week low of $167.04 and a 52-week high of $239.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.38 and a beta of 0.90. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $215.70 and a 200 day moving average of $195.52.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On VeriSign

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign in the fourth quarter worth about $222,840,000. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $141,129,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in VeriSign by 268.8% in the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 692,498 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $143,319,000 after purchasing an additional 504,748 shares in the last quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc raised its stake in VeriSign by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 13,271,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,746,661,000 after buying an additional 455,844 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 58.2% in the 4th quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,097,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $227,062,000 after acquiring an additional 403,760 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.