VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) Sets New 52-Week High – What’s Next?

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $242.52 and last traded at $242.21, with a volume of 659531 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $239.82.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VRSN. Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com lowered VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Robert W. Baird raised VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th.

VeriSign Stock Performance

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $225.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $201.69. The firm has a market cap of $23.13 billion, a PE ratio of 30.56 and a beta of 0.87.

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, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.00. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 43.01% and a net margin of 50.47%.

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

In other news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total value of $103,592.25. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of VeriSign

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in VeriSign during the third quarter worth approximately $263,000. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in VeriSign by 20.5% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 8,195 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,557,000 after purchasing an additional 1,392 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in VeriSign by 11.8% during the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 75,740 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,388,000 after purchasing an additional 7,988 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new position in VeriSign during the third quarter worth approximately $392,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its position in VeriSign by 186.2% during the third 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

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.