Mizuho Securities USA LLC Buys 2,390 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 43.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 7,833 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,390 shares during the quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $1,621,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors bought a new position in VeriSign during the 4th quarter valued at about $141,129,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 544.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 391,319 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $81,003,000 after buying an additional 330,561 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 322.2% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 261,526 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,639,000 after buying an additional 199,583 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of VeriSign in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,665,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 56.8% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 383,100 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $79,286,000 after acquiring an additional 138,796 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird raised VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st.

VeriSign Stock Up 0.2 %

VRSN stock opened at $245.81 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $227.92 and a 200-day moving average of $203.24. The company has a market cap of $23.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.73 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign, Inc. has a twelve month low of $167.05 and a twelve month high of $247.47.

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

Insider Activity at VeriSign

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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale 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 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.