National Pension Service Sells 7,930 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

National Pension Service reduced its stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 4.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 167,735 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 7,930 shares during the period. National Pension Service’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $34,714,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of VRSN. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 127.2% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 184 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the period. BankPlus Trust Department bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Spire Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 69.8% in the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 46.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 272 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $56,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

VeriSign Price Performance

NASDAQ VRSN opened at $237.88 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $22.50 billion, a PE ratio of 29.74 and a beta of 0.90. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $167.04 and a one year high of $239.95. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $216.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $195.96.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share (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 news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total value of $402,563.56. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 26,157 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,033,391.51. This represents a 7.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total transaction of $103,592.25. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VRSN. 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 increased their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th.

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.