Fairbanks Capital Management Inc. Lowers Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Fairbanks Capital Management Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 16.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 630 shares during the quarter. Fairbanks Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $592,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in VeriSign during the fourth quarter valued at $207,161,000. TD Asset Management Inc grew its position in VeriSign by 94.7% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 643,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $121,888,000 after buying an additional 312,882 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 245.4% in the 1st quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 334,652 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $63,420,000 after acquiring an additional 237,770 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 38.9% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 546,308 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $103,531,000 after acquiring an additional 153,035 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 59.2% in the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 316,132 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $64,987,000 after acquiring an additional 117,597 shares during the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on VRSN. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of VeriSign in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. StockNews.com downgraded VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, June 16th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on VeriSign from $237.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 3,684 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $699,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 37,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,177,060. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 3,684 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $699,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 37,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,177,060. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Yehuda Ari Buchalter sold 866 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.01, for a total value of $147,228.66. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 3,661 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $622,406.61. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 5,751 shares of company stock valued at $1,051,527. 0.84% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

VeriSign Stock Up 0.2 %

VRSN stock traded up $0.31 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $186.96. 734,057 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 675,296. VeriSign, Inc. has a twelve month low of $167.04 and a twelve month high of $220.91. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $177.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $184.89. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.97 and a beta of 0.90.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The information services provider reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.08. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 46.63% and a net margin of 55.40%. The company had revenue of $387.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $385.80 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.79 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year.

VeriSign Company 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.