Choate Investment Advisors Makes New Investment in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Choate Investment Advisors purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 1,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $216,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 1.8% in the 4th 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. Empirical Finance LLC grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 3,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $577,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 during the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional grew its stake in shares of 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 during the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

VeriSign Price Performance

VRSN stock opened at $238.52 on Tuesday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52-week low of $167.05 and a 52-week high of $242.23. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $223.88 and its 200-day simple moving average is $200.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.82 and a beta of 0.87.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share 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%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Baird R W upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling at VeriSign

In other VeriSign news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the business’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 value of $103,592.25. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,500,586.25. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.84% 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.