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

StockNews.com cut shares of VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Friday morning.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Citigroup upped their target price on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $244.51 on Friday. VeriSign has a 1 year low of $167.05 and a 1 year high of $245.67. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $226.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $202.36. The company has a market cap of $23.13 billion, a PE ratio of 30.56 and a beta of 0.87.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued 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 Buying and Selling

In related 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 value of $103,592.25. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.84% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Berkshire Hathaway Inc grew its stake in VeriSign by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 13,271,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,746,661,000 after purchasing an additional 455,844 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in VeriSign by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,701,154 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $352,071,000 after acquiring an additional 35,326 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in VeriSign by 20.9% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,327,130 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $273,853,000 after acquiring an additional 229,311 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in VeriSign by 10.0% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,284,759 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $265,894,000 after acquiring an additional 116,833 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its position in VeriSign by 58.2% during the 4th quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,097,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $227,062,000 after acquiring an additional 403,760 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

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.