Metis Global Partners LLC Has $984,000 Stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Metis Global Partners LLC reduced its position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 20.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 4,753 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 1,240 shares during the quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $984,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 1.9% during the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 3,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $577,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. raised its stake in VeriSign by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,537 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional raised its stake in VeriSign by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $243,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 1,429 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $296,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. Finally, Keystone Financial Services grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Keystone Financial Services now owns 1,137 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $235,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on VRSN shares. 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. Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup increased their target price on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, StockNews.com cut VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In related news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total transaction of $103,592.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

VeriSign Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of VeriSign stock opened at $237.04 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $22.42 billion, a PE ratio of 29.63 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a 50 day moving average of $217.99 and a 200-day moving average of $197.10. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $167.04 and a 1-year high of $242.23.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released 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%.

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.