Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Sells 858 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. cut its position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 2.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 31,190 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 858 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $5,546,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC bought a new position in shares of VeriSign during the second quarter worth about $252,000. Choreo LLC bought a new position in shares of VeriSign during the second quarter worth about $319,000. Prudential PLC grew its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 50.4% during the second quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 69,563 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $12,368,000 after buying an additional 23,306 shares in the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 2.5% during the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 9,389 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,669,000 after buying an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC grew its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 4.2% during the second quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 4,612 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $820,000 after buying an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 3,684 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $699,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 37,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,177,060. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on VRSN. StockNews.com cut VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, June 16th. Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Thursday, June 27th.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSN opened at $182.81 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $179.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $180.84. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $167.04 and a 52 week high of $220.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.84 billion, a PE ratio of 22.46 and a beta of 0.90.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The information services provider reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.08. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 46.63% and a net margin of 55.40%. The firm had revenue of $387.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $385.80 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.79 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last 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.