VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) Shares Bought by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 10.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 272,103 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 25,639 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned approximately 0.27% of VeriSign worth $56,042,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. NewEdge Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 15.8% in the 4th quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 72,544 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,941,000 after acquiring an additional 9,888 shares during the period. Seven Eight Capital LP lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 41.4% in the third quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 1,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 553 shares during the period. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 59.8% in the third quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 9,746 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,974,000 after purchasing an additional 3,647 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 3.0% in 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 during the period. Finally, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 7.4% in the third quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 3,623 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $734,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on VRSN shares. StockNews.com cut shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $237.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd.

Insider Buying and Selling 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 transaction of $122,017.65. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 34,816 shares in the company, valued at $6,930,124.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 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 transaction of $122,017.65. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 34,816 shares in the company, valued at $6,930,124.80. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, COO Todd B. Strubbe sold 9,423 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.21, for a total transaction of $1,820,617.83. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 111,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,552,768.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 14,877 shares of company stock worth $2,878,864. 0.94% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

VeriSign Trading Up 0.8 %

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $182.96 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $190.86 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $200.93. VeriSign, Inc. has a twelve month low of $181.57 and a twelve month high of $229.72. The company has a market capitalization of $18.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.10 and a beta of 0.88.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its 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. VeriSign had a net margin of 54.74% and a negative return on equity of 46.56%. The firm had revenue of $380.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $381.01 million. On average, equities research analysts predict that VeriSign, Inc. will post 7.82 earnings per share for the current year.

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.