California State Teachers Retirement System Sells 3,274 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

California State Teachers Retirement System reduced its stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN – Get Rating) by 2.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 159,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 3,274 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $27,626,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Veriti Management LLC raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Veriti Management LLC now owns 1,726 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $300,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp grew its stake in VeriSign by 1.7% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 3,795 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $659,000 after purchasing an additional 62 shares during the period. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd raised its holdings in VeriSign by 20.9% in the third quarter. ICICI Prudential Asset Management Co Ltd now owns 394 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares in the last quarter. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. lifted its position in VeriSign by 7.8% during the third quarter. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. now owns 970 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $168,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Veritable L.P. boosted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Veritable L.P. now owns 1,764 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $306,000 after buying an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. 91.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other VeriSign news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $202.25, for a total transaction of $404,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 668,444 shares in the company, valued at approximately $135,192,799. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 613 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $206.72, for a total value of $126,719.36. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 39,019 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,066,007.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO D James Bidzos sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $202.25, for a total transaction of $404,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 668,444 shares in the company, valued at approximately $135,192,799. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 60,733 shares of company stock worth $12,645,242 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.98% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on VRSN shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 14th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the company from $216.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 15th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on VeriSign from $243.00 to $252.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 13th.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $193.35 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $207.19 and a 200-day moving average price of $195.64. The company has a market capitalization of $20.28 billion, a PE ratio of 30.94 and a beta of 1.00. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $155.25 and a 1-year high of $228.80.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 9th. The information services provider reported $1.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.53 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $369.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $366.10 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 47.30% and a negative return on equity of 46.13%. VeriSign’s revenue was up 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.48 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that VeriSign, Inc. will post 6.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

VeriSign Company Profile

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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.