Citigroup Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) Stock

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) had its price objective lifted by equities research analysts at Citigroup from $246.00 to $250.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Citigroup’s target price indicates a potential upside of 13.17% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. StockNews.com upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Baird R W upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Trading Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ VRSN opened at $220.91 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $203.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $189.90. The company has a market cap of $21.23 billion, a PE ratio of 25.69 and a beta of 0.90. VeriSign has a 1 year low of $167.04 and a 1 year high of $222.15.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In other VeriSign news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total transaction of $402,563.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 26,157 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,033,391.51. This represents a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On VeriSign

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 544.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 391,319 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $81,003,000 after buying an additional 330,561 shares during the last quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 3,996.0% during the fourth quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC now owns 4,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $848,000 after buying an additional 3,996 shares during the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 602.6% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 11,712 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,225,000 after buying an additional 10,045 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign during the fourth quarter worth approximately $989,000. Finally, Burney Co. lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 19.5% during the fourth quarter. Burney Co. now owns 9,060 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,875,000 after buying an additional 1,479 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

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.