VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) saw a significant drop in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,600,000 shares, a drop of 16.7% from the January 15th total of 1,920,000 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 688,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other VeriSign news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the business’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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 26,157 shares in the company, valued at $5,033,391.51. The trade was a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VeriSign

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new position in VeriSign in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in VeriSign in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in VeriSign by 127.2% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 184 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Concord Wealth Partners raised its stake in VeriSign by 93.2% in the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 226 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 109 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department bought a new position in VeriSign in the fourth quarter worth approximately $49,000. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on VRSN shares. Baird R W upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup boosted their target price on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Stock Performance

VeriSign stock opened at $229.24 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $209.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $192.27. VeriSign has a fifty-two week low of $167.04 and a fifty-two week high of $230.30. The company has a market capitalization of $22.03 billion, a PE ratio of 28.66 and a beta of 0.90.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.00. VeriSign had a net margin of 50.47% and a negative return on equity of 44.06%.

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.