Morningstar Investment Management LLC Makes New $206,000 Investment in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Morningstar Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 995 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. Boston Financial Mangement LLC boosted its position in VeriSign by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Boston Financial Mangement LLC now owns 181,746 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $37,614,000 after purchasing an additional 11,198 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 19.3% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 33,853 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,006,000 after acquiring an additional 5,486 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 270.5% in the 4th quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 55,721 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $11,532,000 after purchasing an additional 40,680 shares during the last quarter. Bryn Mawr Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in VeriSign in the 4th quarter worth approximately $214,000. Finally, Convergence Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the fourth quarter worth $1,851,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSN opened at $231.73 on Thursday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1 year low of $167.04 and a 1 year high of $232.48. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $210.32 and its 200 day moving average price is $192.94. The company has a market capitalization of $21.92 billion, a PE ratio of 28.97 and a beta of 0.90.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its quarterly 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%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total value of $402,563.56. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 26,157 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,033,391.51. The trade was a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 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.