VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) Lifted to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN – Get Rating) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Tuesday morning.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of VeriSign from $243.00 to $252.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday, February 13th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of VeriSign from a neutral rating to an outperform rating and increased their price target for the stock from $216.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 15th.

VeriSign Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of VeriSign stock opened at $192.06 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $207.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $195.52. VeriSign has a 12-month low of $155.25 and a 12-month high of $228.80. The stock has a market cap of $20.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.73 and a beta of 1.00.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 9th. The information services provider reported $1.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.53 by $0.17. VeriSign had a net margin of 47.30% and a negative return on equity of 46.13%. The business had revenue of $369.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $366.10 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.48 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that VeriSign will post 6.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.12, for a total transaction of $400,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 672,444 shares in the company, valued at approximately $134,569,493.28. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other VeriSign news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 613 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.72, for a total transaction of $126,719.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 39,019 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,066,007.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO D James Bidzos sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.12, for a total transaction of $400,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 672,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $134,569,493.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 62,733 shares of company stock worth $13,050,062 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.98% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VeriSign

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of VRSN. Norges Bank purchased a new position in VeriSign during the 4th quarter worth $201,956,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new position in VeriSign during the 3rd quarter worth $78,136,000. Parsifal Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 3rd quarter valued at about $64,386,000. CCLA Investment Management purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 3rd quarter valued at about $64,137,000. Finally, Natixis increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 3,177.1% in the 4th quarter. Natixis now owns 267,901 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $55,038,000 after purchasing an additional 259,726 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.21% of the company’s stock.

About VeriSign

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VeriSign, Inc provides domain name registry services and Internet infrastructure, which enables Internet navigation for many of the world’s most recognized domain names. It enables the security, stability, and resiliency of key Internet infrastructure and services, including providing root zone maintainer services.