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

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 8.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 570,016 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 42,465 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $117,971,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VRSN. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at $141,129,000. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in VeriSign by 544.1% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 391,319 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $81,003,000 after purchasing an additional 330,561 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised 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 valued at $53,639,000 after purchasing an additional 199,583 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign during the third quarter worth about $35,665,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 138,796 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

In related news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total value 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. This trade represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

VeriSign Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ VRSN opened at $240.47 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $220.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $198.24. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $167.04 and a fifty-two week high of $242.23. The firm has a market cap of $22.75 billion, a PE ratio of 30.06 and a beta of 0.87.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its quarterly 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 net margin of 50.47% and a negative return on equity of 43.01%.

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.