Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Sells 322 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 11.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,524 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 322 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $520,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Seven Eight Capital LP increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 41.4% during the 3rd quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 1,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 553 shares during the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in VeriSign by 59.8% in the 3rd quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 9,746 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,974,000 after acquiring an additional 3,647 shares during the last quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise grew its position in VeriSign by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 3,623 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $734,000 after acquiring an additional 249 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in VeriSign by 17.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 660,463 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $133,764,000 after acquiring an additional 96,676 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC bought a new position in VeriSign in the 3rd quarter valued at $1,366,000. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $182.96 on Friday. VeriSign, Inc. has a twelve month low of $181.57 and a twelve month high of $229.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.10 and a beta of 0.88. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $190.86 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $200.93.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The information services provider reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.09. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 46.56% and a net margin of 54.74%. The business had revenue of $380.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $381.01 million. Research analysts predict that VeriSign, Inc. will post 7.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on VRSN. Citigroup cut their price objective on VeriSign from $237.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 613 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.05, for a total transaction of $122,017.65. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 34,816 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,930,124.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 613 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.05, for a total transaction of $122,017.65. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 34,816 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,930,124.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 614 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $116,660.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 42,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,088,110. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 14,877 shares of company stock worth $2,878,864. 0.94% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.