Securian Asset Management Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Securian Asset Management Inc. trimmed its holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 6.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,293 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 300 shares during the period. Securian Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $888,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of VRSN. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in VeriSign by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,960 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $406,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC raised its position in VeriSign by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 3,256 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $674,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC raised its position in VeriSign by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 3,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $577,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc. raised its position in VeriSign by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,537 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $292,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, CX Institutional raised its position in VeriSign by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $243,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In related news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the business’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 sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.84% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

VeriSign Trading Up 2.1 %

VRSN stock opened at $238.35 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $223.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $200.20. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $167.04 and a 12-month high of $242.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.79 and a beta of 0.87.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) 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%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on VRSN shares. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. 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 shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday.

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.