VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) Short Interest Up 18.2% in February

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,820,000 shares, an increase of 18.2% from the February 13th total of 1,540,000 shares. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 759,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com cut VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird raised VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th.

VeriSign Trading Up 0.5 %

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $239.82 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $22.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.98 and a beta of 0.87. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $224.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $201.12. VeriSign has a 1-year low of $167.05 and a 1-year high of $242.23.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 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 Activity

In other news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total value of $103,592.25. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,500,586.25. This trade represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VeriSign

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in VeriSign by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 104,110 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,777,000 after acquiring an additional 5,303 shares during the period. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in VeriSign during the 3rd quarter worth $263,000. CIBC Asset Management Inc increased its stake in VeriSign by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 12,807 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,433,000 after acquiring an additional 670 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in shares of VeriSign by 20.5% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 8,195 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,557,000 after purchasing an additional 1,392 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Claro Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 3rd quarter valued at $324,000. Institutional investors own 92.90% 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.