LPL Financial LLC Increases Stock Holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

LPL Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 47.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 47,376 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 15,147 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $9,805,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter worth approximately $22,285,000. AXQ Capital LP purchased a new stake in VeriSign in the fourth quarter worth $977,000. Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in VeriSign by 75.2% in the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 106,766 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,096,000 after purchasing an additional 45,830 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its position in VeriSign by 43.9% during the fourth quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 7,833 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,621,000 after buying an additional 2,390 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Global Investments bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 4th quarter valued at $537,000. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on VRSN shares. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of VeriSign from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $240.20 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $22.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.03 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $167.05 and a fifty-two week high of $258.67. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $234.69 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $206.83.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.00. VeriSign had a net margin of 50.47% and a negative return on equity of 43.01%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other VeriSign news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total transaction of $103,592.25. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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.