DnB Asset Management AS Grows Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

DnB Asset Management AS raised its holdings in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 15,210 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 229 shares during the period. DnB Asset Management AS’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $3,148,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in VeriSign during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $222,840,000. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors bought a new stake in VeriSign during the 4th quarter valued at $141,129,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 544.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 391,319 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $81,003,000 after acquiring an additional 330,561 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 322.2% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 261,526 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,639,000 after acquiring an additional 199,583 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 3rd quarter worth $35,665,000. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on VRSN. 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 boosted their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th.

VeriSign Trading Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ VRSN opened at $253.87 on Tuesday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $167.05 and a 12-month high of $257.14. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $231.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $205.23. The stock has a market cap of $24.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.73 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

In other news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total value of $103,592.25. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

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.