VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) Position Lowered by Meitav Investment House Ltd.

Meitav Investment House Ltd. lessened its stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 11.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,450 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,883 shares during the period. Meitav Investment House Ltd.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $2,991,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position 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 in the last quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of VeriSign by 3,996.0% in the 4th quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC now owns 4,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $848,000 after acquiring an additional 3,996 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 322.2% during 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 buying an additional 199,583 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC increased its stake in shares of VeriSign by 602.6% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 11,712 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,225,000 after purchasing an additional 10,045 shares during the period. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign during the fourth quarter worth approximately $989,000. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSN opened at $231.73 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.92 billion, a PE ratio of 28.97 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $210.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $192.94. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $167.04 and a fifty-two week high of $232.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share (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%.

Insider Buying and Selling at VeriSign

In related news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total transaction of $402,563.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 26,157 shares in the company, 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.