VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) Shares Sold by Arizona State Retirement System

Arizona State Retirement System lowered its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,489 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 193 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $5,275,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 544.1% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 391,319 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $81,003,000 after acquiring an additional 330,561 shares during the period. Birch Capital Management LLC boosted its stake 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 valued at $848,000 after acquiring an additional 3,996 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 322.2% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 261,526 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,639,000 after buying an additional 199,583 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in VeriSign by 12.2% in the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 20,462 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,235,000 after acquiring an additional 2,218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC lifted its position in 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 period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upgraded VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 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. StockNews.com downgraded shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Baird R W upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other VeriSign 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.84% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSN opened at $240.47 on Friday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $167.04 and a 1-year high of $242.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.75 billion, a PE ratio of 30.06 and a beta of 0.87. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $220.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $198.24.

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

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.