Short Interest in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) Increases By 18.2%

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,820,000 shares, a growth of 18.2% from the February 13th total of 1,540,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 759,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days. Approximately 1.9% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Baird R W raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Price Performance

VRSN opened at $242.21 on Thursday. VeriSign has a 12 month low of $167.05 and a 12 month high of $242.52. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $225.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $201.41. The stock has a market cap of $22.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.28 and a beta of 0.87.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 Transactions at VeriSign

In other news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of VeriSign

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new position in VeriSign in the fourth quarter worth approximately $222,840,000. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $141,129,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its stake in VeriSign by 268.8% during the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 692,498 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $143,319,000 after purchasing an additional 504,748 shares during the period. Berkshire Hathaway Inc lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 13,271,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,746,661,000 after purchasing an additional 455,844 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of VeriSign by 58.2% in the fourth quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,097,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $227,062,000 after buying an additional 403,760 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.