Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Reduces Stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd lowered its stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 82.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 3,745 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 17,973 shares during the period. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $775,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors purchased a new position in VeriSign in the fourth quarter worth about $141,129,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in VeriSign by 544.1% in 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 during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its stake in 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. bought a new stake in VeriSign in the third quarter worth about $35,665,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in VeriSign by 56.8% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 383,100 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $79,286,000 after purchasing an additional 138,796 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Stock Performance

VeriSign stock opened at $237.88 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $216.48 and a 200-day moving average price of $195.96. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $167.04 and a fifty-two week high of $239.95. The company has a market capitalization of $22.50 billion, a PE ratio of 29.74 and a beta of 0.90.

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, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.00. VeriSign had a net margin of 50.47% and a negative return on equity of 43.01%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total value of $103,592.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,500,586.25. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total transaction of $402,563.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 26,157 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,033,391.51. This trade represents a 7.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on VRSN shares. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Baird R W raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th.

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.