VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Monday morning.

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

VeriSign Stock Up 1.6 %

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $240.93 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.12 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign has a twelve month low of $167.04 and a twelve month high of $242.23. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $218.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $197.41.

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

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In other news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of VeriSign

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of VRSN. Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 3rd quarter valued at $227,000. abrdn plc lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 24.2% during the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 23,623 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,477,000 after buying an additional 4,599 shares during the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 100,422 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,076,000 after buying an additional 5,900 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 68.1% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 854 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $162,000 after buying an additional 346 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 23,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,300,000 after buying an additional 327 shares during the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.