SBI Securities Co. Ltd. Purchases Shares of 436 VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 436 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $90,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its holdings in VeriSign by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 693,369 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $131,712,000 after buying an additional 47,412 shares in the last quarter. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors purchased a new position in VeriSign during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $141,129,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in VeriSign by 26.3% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 580,613 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $110,293,000 after buying an additional 120,958 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in VeriSign by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 527,551 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $100,214,000 after buying an additional 9,574 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 428,647 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $81,426,000 after purchasing an additional 46,677 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $240.47 on Friday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52-week low of $167.04 and a 52-week high of $242.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.06 and a beta of 0.87. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $220.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $198.24.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on VRSN shares. StockNews.com lowered VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup raised their price objective on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other VeriSign news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was 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 $5,500,586.25. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.84% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.