Citigroup Inc. Increases Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Citigroup Inc. lifted its holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 30.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 147,190 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 34,645 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. owned about 0.14% of VeriSign worth $33,261,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new stake in VeriSign during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $38,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new stake in VeriSign during the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,000. Ten Capital Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in VeriSign during the 1st quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, Clear Street Markets LLC increased its stake in VeriSign by 94.6% during the 1st quarter. Clear Street Markets LLC now owns 181 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.95% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

In other news, Director Timothy Tomlinson sold 589 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.85, for a total transaction of $115,355.65. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,937,750. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Timothy Tomlinson sold 589 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.85, for a total value of $115,355.65. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 15,000 shares in the company, valued at $2,937,750. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 125 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.69, for a total value of $25,086.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 25,173 shares in the company, valued at $5,051,969.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,339 shares of company stock worth $2,360,522 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.94% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on VRSN shares. StockNews.com upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 6th. Citigroup cut their price objective on VeriSign from $252.00 to $249.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 24th.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VeriSign stock opened at $210.12 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $21.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.93 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $204.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $211.93. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $188.44 and a 1-year high of $229.72.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 26th. The information services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $376.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $378.31 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 45.68% and a net margin of 49.38%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.58 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that VeriSign, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About VeriSign

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 the 13 internet root servers; and offering registration services and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net domains, which supports global e-commerce.