Oxbow Advisors LLC Acquires 238 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Oxbow Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 1.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 14,322 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the period. Oxbow Advisors LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $2,964,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Empirical Finance LLC increased its holdings in VeriSign by 1.9% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 3,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $577,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. increased its holdings in VeriSign by 3.9% in the third quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,537 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. CX Institutional increased its holdings in VeriSign by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $243,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares in the last quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC increased its holdings in VeriSign by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 1,429 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $296,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Keystone Financial Services increased its holdings in VeriSign by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Keystone Financial Services now owns 1,137 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $235,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at approximately $5,033,391.51. This represents a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

VeriSign Stock Down 0.9 %

NASDAQ VRSN opened at $231.87 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $21.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.98 and a beta of 0.90. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $167.04 and a 52 week high of $236.20. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $211.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $193.50.

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

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.