VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) Downgraded to Hold Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday.

VRSN has been the topic of several other reports. Baird R W raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Price Performance

VRSN stock opened at $244.51 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $226.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $202.12. The company has a market capitalization of $23.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.56 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign has a 12 month low of $167.05 and a 12 month high of $245.67.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other VeriSign news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total transaction of $103,592.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % 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 insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VeriSign

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. Norges Bank acquired a new position in VeriSign during the fourth quarter worth $222,840,000. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors acquired a new position in VeriSign during the fourth quarter worth $141,129,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in VeriSign by 268.8% during the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 692,498 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $143,319,000 after acquiring an additional 504,748 shares during the period. Berkshire Hathaway Inc raised its position in VeriSign by 3.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 455,844 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in VeriSign by 58.2% during the fourth 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 during the period. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.