Jones Financial Companies Lllp Boosts Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 10.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,512 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 149 shares during the quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $313,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors bought a new position in VeriSign in the 4th quarter worth about $141,129,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 544.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 391,319 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $81,003,000 after purchasing an additional 330,561 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 322.2% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 261,526 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,639,000 after purchasing an additional 199,583 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in VeriSign in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,665,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in VeriSign by 56.8% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 383,100 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $79,286,000 after purchasing an additional 138,796 shares during the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

VeriSign Stock Performance

VRSN stock opened at $235.60 on Thursday. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $167.04 and a one year high of $242.23. The company has a market capitalization of $22.29 billion, a PE ratio of 29.45 and a beta of 0.87. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $222.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $199.44.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.00. VeriSign had a net margin of 50.47% and a negative return on equity of 43.01%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total transaction of $103,592.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Baird R W upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird upgraded VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th.

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