SG Americas Securities LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

SG Americas Securities LLC decreased its holdings in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 82.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,676 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 7,874 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $347,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Concord Wealth Partners boosted its position in VeriSign by 93.2% in the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 226 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Tobam increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 61.1% in the third quarter. Tobam now owns 311 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $59,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in shares of VeriSign by 138.6% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 420 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $75,000 after acquiring an additional 244 shares during the last quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in VeriSign in the third quarter valued at approximately $76,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC lifted its position in VeriSign by 16,966.7% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 512 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $97,000 after buying an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on VeriSign from $210.00 to $238.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd.

VeriSign Trading Up 0.5 %

VeriSign stock opened at $216.02 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $202.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $189.34. The stock has a market cap of $20.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.12 and a beta of 0.90. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $167.04 and a 12-month high of $217.66.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total value of $402,563.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 26,157 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,033,391.51. This represents a 7.41 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.84% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.