West Family Investments Inc. Purchases 351 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

West Family Investments Inc. lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 22.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 351 shares during the quarter. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $391,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Empirical Finance LLC grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 3,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $577,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. CX Institutional boosted its stake in VeriSign by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $243,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC boosted its stake in VeriSign by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 1,429 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $296,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the period. Keystone Financial Services boosted its stake in VeriSign by 7.6% in the 4th quarter. Keystone Financial Services now owns 1,137 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $235,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in VeriSign by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 3,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $647,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

In related news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on VRSN. 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 upgraded VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Baird R W upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN opened at $240.47 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.06 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1 year low of $167.04 and a 1 year high of $242.23. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $220.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $198.10.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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%.

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.