Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Trims Stock Holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lowered its holdings in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 107,008 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,442 shares during the quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA owned 0.11% of VeriSign worth $22,146,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 45,290 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,373,000 after purchasing an additional 242 shares during the period. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 17,553.1% during the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 25,244 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,224,000 after buying an additional 25,101 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at about $222,840,000. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co bought a new position in VeriSign in the 4th quarter worth about $2,162,000. Finally, Korea Investment CORP increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 42.3% during the fourth quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 29,943 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,197,000 after acquiring an additional 8,900 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total value of $103,592.25. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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.

VeriSign Trading Up 1.2 %

NASDAQ VRSN opened at $253.87 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $231.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $205.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.73 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $167.05 and a 12-month high of $257.14.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.00. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 43.01% and a net margin of 50.47%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on VRSN shares. Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird raised VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com lowered VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th.

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.