Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Acquires Shares of 5,400 VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 5,400 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,112,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 14.7% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,826,836 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $369,989,000 after purchasing an additional 233,811 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 13.1% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,090,068 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $220,771,000 after purchasing an additional 125,901 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 4.4% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,056,995 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $214,073,000 after purchasing an additional 44,080 shares in the last quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 772,330 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $159,069,000 after purchasing an additional 22,796 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 17.1% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 660,463 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $133,764,000 after purchasing an additional 96,676 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $237.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd.

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

In other news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 613 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.05, for a total value of $122,017.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 34,816 shares in the company, valued at $6,930,124.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 613 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.05, for a total value of $122,017.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 34,816 shares in the company, valued at $6,930,124.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 614 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total transaction of $116,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 42,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,088,110. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,877 shares of company stock worth $2,878,864 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.94% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $185.12 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $18.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.37 and a beta of 0.88. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $181.57 and a 52 week high of $229.72. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $190.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $200.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The information services provider reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $380.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $381.01 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 54.74% and a negative return on equity of 46.56%. Analysts forecast that VeriSign, Inc. will post 7.82 earnings per share for the current year.

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.