Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. Sells 400 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc. lowered its holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 17.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,910 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 400 shares during the quarter. Ipswich Investment Management Co. Inc.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $395,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VRSN. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $141,129,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised 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 buying an additional 330,561 shares in the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $46,455,000. 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 valued at $53,639,000 after buying an additional 199,583 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $35,665,000. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Price Performance

VRSN stock opened at $231.87 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $211.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $193.50. The stock has a market cap of $21.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.98 and a beta of 0.90. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1 year low of $167.04 and a 1 year high of $236.20.

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, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.00. VeriSign had a net margin of 50.47% and a negative return on equity of 43.01%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were 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 approximately $5,033,391.51. This represents a 7.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.