Allianz SE Acquires Shares of 6,922 VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Allianz SE bought a new position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 6,922 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,420,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VRSN. Algert Global LLC boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 18.5% in the third quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 3,655 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $694,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 17.0% in the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 5,799 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,102,000 after buying an additional 844 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,444,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in VeriSign by 71.5% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 71,644 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $13,609,000 after acquiring an additional 29,876 shares during the period. Finally, Fiduciary Trust Co lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 27.8% in the third quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co now owns 1,477 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $281,000 after acquiring an additional 321 shares during the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Baird R W upgraded 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, March 21st. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VeriSign stock opened at $250.92 on Friday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $167.05 and a 1-year high of $256.35. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $230.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $204.56. The company has a market capitalization of $23.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.37 and a beta of 0.87.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting 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 dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,500,586.25. The trade was 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 at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

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.