Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 511 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System reduced its position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 10.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,444 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 511 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $920,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the third quarter valued at approximately $392,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 186.2% in the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,620 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $688,000 after purchasing an additional 2,355 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 44.6% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 33,290 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,324,000 after purchasing an additional 10,262 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of VeriSign by 1.8% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 527,551 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $100,214,000 after purchasing an additional 9,574 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 9.8% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 233,323 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $44,322,000 after purchasing an additional 20,914 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

VeriSign Stock Up 0.9 %

VeriSign stock opened at $244.51 on Monday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52-week low of $167.05 and a 52-week high of $246.60. The company has a market cap of $23.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.56 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $226.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $202.36.

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

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

In related news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of VeriSign 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 directly owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. The trade was 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 the SEC website. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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 lifted their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup lifted their price target 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. Baird R W upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday.

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.