VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) Shares Bought by Parallel Advisors LLC

Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 30.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,399 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 564 shares during the quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $496,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 127.2% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 184 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. BankPlus Trust Department acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Finally, Spire Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 69.8% in the 4th quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 253 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 104 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup raised their price target on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com downgraded VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. 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. 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 Performance

VeriSign stock opened at $242.31 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $225.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $201.69. The company has a market capitalization of $22.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.29 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $167.05 and a fifty-two week high of $243.05.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share 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%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 value of $103,592.25. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,500,586.25. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.