VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) was downgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Friday.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Citigroup upped their price target on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Robert W. Baird raised VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Stock Up 0.9 %

VRSN stock opened at $244.51 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $226.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $202.24. The stock has a market cap of $23.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.56 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign has a 52-week low of $167.05 and a 52-week high of $245.67.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its 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%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of VeriSign

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 135,520 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $28,047,000 after buying an additional 1,117 shares during the last quarter. 111 Capital purchased a new stake in VeriSign during the 4th quarter worth about $516,000. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC purchased a new stake in VeriSign during the 4th quarter worth about $254,000. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH purchased a new stake in VeriSign during the 4th quarter worth about $3,348,000. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in VeriSign during the 4th quarter worth about $45,526,000. 92.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.