Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Sells 699 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lessened its holdings in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 3.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,573 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 699 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $3,637,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the fourth quarter worth $141,129,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in VeriSign by 544.1% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 391,319 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $81,003,000 after purchasing an additional 330,561 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in VeriSign by 322.2% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 261,526 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,639,000 after purchasing an additional 199,583 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in VeriSign in the third quarter worth $35,665,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in VeriSign by 56.8% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 383,100 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $79,286,000 after purchasing an additional 138,796 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the company’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 owns 23,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $244.51 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $226.47 and a 200-day moving average of $202.36. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $167.05 and a one year high of $246.60. The stock has a market cap of $23.13 billion, a PE ratio of 30.56 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on VRSN shares. Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday.

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.