StockNews.com Lowers VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) to Hold

StockNews.com cut shares of VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday.

Separately, Citigroup dropped their target price on VeriSign from $237.00 to $236.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Tuesday.

VeriSign Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of VRSN opened at $187.82 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $193.78 and its 200 day moving average is $201.97. The company has a market capitalization of $18.95 billion, a PE ratio of 23.71 and a beta of 0.88. VeriSign has a 12-month low of $185.19 and a 12-month high of $229.72.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The information services provider reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $380.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $381.01 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 46.56% and a net margin of 54.74%. Equities research analysts predict that VeriSign will post 7.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

In other VeriSign news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 613 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.12, for a total transaction of $121,447.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 35,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,019,193.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 613 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.12, for a total value of $121,447.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 35,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,019,193.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 614 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $116,660.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly 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 have sold 23,001 shares of company stock worth $4,518,942 over the last quarter. 0.94% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On VeriSign

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. West Tower Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign during the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its position in VeriSign by 52.0% in the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 152 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 2,628.6% during the 2nd quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 191 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 184 shares during the period. Finally, Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.