VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) Downgraded to Hold Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Wednesday morning.

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

VeriSign Trading Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $235.60 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $222.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $199.44. The company has a market cap of $22.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.45 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign has a twelve month low of $167.04 and a twelve month high of $242.23.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.84% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of VeriSign

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in VeriSign by 12.9% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $251,000 after buying an additional 151 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in VeriSign by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 104,110 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,777,000 after buying an additional 5,303 shares during the period. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc acquired a new position in VeriSign in the 3rd quarter valued at $6,112,000. KBC Group NV increased its stake in VeriSign by 56.3% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 17,495 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,323,000 after buying an additional 6,303 shares during the period. Finally, Metis Global Partners LLC increased its stake in VeriSign by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 5,993 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,138,000 after buying an additional 336 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.