Legal & General Group Plc Has $130.60 Million Stock Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Legal & General Group Plc trimmed its holdings in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 22.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 631,029 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 178,107 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $130,598,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of VeriSign by 127.2% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 184 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. BankPlus Trust Department bought a new stake in VeriSign during the 4th quarter worth about $49,000. Finally, Spire Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of VeriSign by 69.8% during the fourth quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 253 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

VeriSign Trading Down 0.7 %

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $242.87 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $237.75 and a 200 day simple moving average of $209.23. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $167.05 and a 1-year high of $258.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.98 billion, a PE ratio of 30.36 and a beta of 0.87.

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%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on VeriSign from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th.

Insider Buying and Selling at VeriSign

In related news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. This trade represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

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.