VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) Shares Bought by Moors & Cabot Inc.

Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 12.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,597 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 173 shares during the quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $331,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of VRSN. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in VeriSign by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 12,934 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,677,000 after purchasing an additional 705 shares during the last quarter. Schaper Benz & Wise Investment Counsel Inc. WI increased its stake in shares of VeriSign by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Schaper Benz & Wise Investment Counsel Inc. WI now owns 14,595 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,021,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp raised its holdings in VeriSign by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 11,053 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,288,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares in the last quarter. Amundi boosted its stake in VeriSign by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 702,055 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $148,604,000 after acquiring an additional 106,094 shares during the last quarter. Finally, West Family Investments Inc. increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 22.8% in the 4th quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $391,000 after purchasing an additional 351 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ VRSN opened at $238.35 on Friday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $167.04 and a 12-month high of $242.23. The company has a market cap of $22.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.79 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $223.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $200.20.

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

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $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 accessible through the SEC website. 0.84% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.