Pflug Koory LLC Boosts Stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Pflug Koory LLC raised its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 16.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 700 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. Pflug Koory LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $145,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. CX Institutional increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $243,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter worth approximately $216,000. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at $989,000. Empirical Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of VeriSign during the 4th quarter valued at $244,000. Finally, Burney Co. raised its position in VeriSign by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. Burney Co. now owns 9,060 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,875,000 after purchasing an additional 1,479 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VRSN. Citigroup raised their price objective on VeriSign from $210.00 to $238.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Robert W. Baird upgraded VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total transaction of $402,563.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 26,157 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,033,391.51. This trade represents a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $210.73 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $198.30 and a 200 day moving average of $187.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.50 and a beta of 0.89. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $167.04 and a 52 week high of $213.68.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The information services provider reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.01 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $390.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $390.19 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 55.74% and a negative return on equity of 45.59%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.83 EPS.

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.