Parallel Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Parallel Advisors LLC increased its holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 30.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,399 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 564 shares during the period. Parallel Advisors LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $496,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VRSN. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,960 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $406,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 3,256 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $674,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $243,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 1,429 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $296,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp boosted 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 during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

In other news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total transaction of $103,592.25. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,735 shares of the company’s stock, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on VRSN. StockNews.com cut VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Baird R W upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird upgraded VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN opened at $242.31 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $225.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $201.69. The stock has a market cap of $22.92 billion, a PE ratio of 30.29 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12 month low of $167.05 and a 12 month high of $243.05.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.00. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 43.01% and a net margin of 50.47%.

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.