VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) Shares Bought by Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 8.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 570,016 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 42,465 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned about 0.59% of VeriSign worth $117,971,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 1.9% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 3,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $577,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc. lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 3.9% in the third quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,537 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. CX Institutional boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 5.1% during the fourth 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. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC grew its position in VeriSign by 5.5% during the fourth quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 1,429 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $296,000 after buying an additional 74 shares during the period. Finally, Keystone Financial Services increased its holdings in VeriSign by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Keystone Financial Services now owns 1,137 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $235,000 after buying an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on VRSN shares. Baird R W upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird upgraded VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup lifted their price target on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $240.47 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $220.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $198.24. The stock has a market cap of $22.75 billion, a PE ratio of 30.06 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $167.04 and a one year high of $242.23.

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

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.