VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Wednesday.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Citigroup boosted their price objective on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Price Performance

VeriSign stock opened at $238.35 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $22.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.79 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign has a 1-year low of $167.04 and a 1-year high of $242.23. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $223.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $200.07.

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 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

In other news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total transaction of $103,592.25. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.84% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VeriSign

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,960 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $406,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 3,256 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $674,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. increased its holdings in VeriSign by 3.9% during the third quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,537 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $292,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC raised its stake in VeriSign by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 3,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $577,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, CX Institutional boosted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $243,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.