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

StockNews.com cut shares of VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Monday morning.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on VRSN. Citigroup lifted their price target on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Robert W. Baird upgraded 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 VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $240.93 on Monday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $218.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $197.41. The firm has a market cap of $22.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.12 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign has a 52-week low of $167.04 and a 52-week high of $242.23.

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

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in VeriSign by 2.5% in the 4th 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 raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 3,256 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $674,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 3,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $577,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,537 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $243,000 after buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

About VeriSign

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.