Poinciana Advisors Group LLC Invests $233,000 in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Poinciana Advisors Group LLC purchased a new stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,127 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $233,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com downgraded VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Baird R W upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird upgraded 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 research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th.

VeriSign Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $238.35 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $223.32 and a 200 day moving average of $200.07. The company has a market cap of $22.55 billion, a PE ratio of 29.79 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $167.04 and a 12-month high of $242.23.

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

In related news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the business’s 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.