Nordea Investment Management AB Grows Holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 544.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 391,319 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 330,561 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $81,003,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 19.2% in the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 1,883 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $335,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares during the last quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the second quarter worth $204,000. Quest Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 9,389 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,669,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Prudential PLC boosted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 50.4% in the 2nd quarter. Prudential PLC now owns 69,563 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $12,368,000 after buying an additional 23,306 shares during the period. Finally, Choreo LLC bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter valued at about $319,000. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at VeriSign

In related news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 1,228 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total transaction of $233,320.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 33,593 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,382,670. The trade was a 3.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total transaction of $402,563.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 26,157 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,033,391.51. The trade was a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.84% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VRSN. Robert W. Baird raised shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup increased their target price on VeriSign from $210.00 to $238.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Baird R W raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $209.22 on Wednesday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $167.04 and a 12-month high of $213.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.33 and a beta of 0.89. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $191.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $185.06.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The information services provider reported $2.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.01 by $0.06. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 45.59% and a net margin of 55.74%. The company had revenue of $390.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $390.19 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.83 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% 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.