TIAA Trust National Association Purchases Shares of 1,013 VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

TIAA Trust National Association acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,013 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $210,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors bought a new position in VeriSign in the fourth quarter worth $141,129,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of VeriSign by 544.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 330,561 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 199,583 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in VeriSign in the third quarter valued at about $35,665,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in VeriSign by 56.8% during 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 purchasing an additional 138,796 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of VRSN opened at $250.92 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $23.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.37 and a beta of 0.87. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $230.38 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $204.39. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52-week low of $167.05 and a 52-week high of $256.35.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 VeriSign news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total value 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. This trade represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VRSN. Citigroup increased their target price on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st.

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.