Assetmark Inc. Grows Stock Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 847.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 12,528 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 11,206 shares during the quarter. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $2,593,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 570,016 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $117,971,000 after purchasing an additional 42,465 shares during the period. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign in the fourth quarter valued at about $90,000. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 1,512 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $313,000 after purchasing an additional 149 shares during the period. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 381.0% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 380 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 301 shares during the period. Finally, Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign in the fourth quarter valued at about $402,000. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on VRSN. Robert W. Baird raised VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com lowered VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Citigroup raised 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, Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Stock Up 0.2 %

VeriSign stock opened at $240.47 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $22.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.06 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $167.04 and a 52 week high of $242.23. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $220.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $198.36.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 EPS 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%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.