Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Grows Stock Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 56.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 383,100 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 138,796 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $79,286,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its stake in VeriSign by 19.2% in the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 1,883 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $335,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Choreo LLC purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign in the second quarter worth $319,000. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 72.2% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 29,867 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,310,000 after buying an additional 12,521 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 10.8% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 121,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $21,595,000 after buying an additional 11,853 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 59.6% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 32,223 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $5,729,000 after buying an additional 12,039 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $210.10 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $194.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $186.16. The firm has a market cap of $20.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.43 and a beta of 0.89. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $167.04 and a one year high of $213.68.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The information services provider reported $2.07 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.01 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $390.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $390.19 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 45.59% and a net margin of 55.74%. The company’s revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.83 earnings per share.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total value of $402,563.56. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on VRSN shares. Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird raised VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on shares of VeriSign from $210.00 to $238.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd.

VeriSign 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.