Korea Investment CORP Acquires 8,900 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Korea Investment CORP raised its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 42.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 29,943 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 8,900 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $6,197,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in shares of VeriSign by 544.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 391,319 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $81,003,000 after buying an additional 330,561 shares during the last quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 3,996.0% during the 4th quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC now owns 4,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $848,000 after acquiring an additional 3,996 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 322.2% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 261,526 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,639,000 after acquiring an additional 199,583 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 20,462 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $4,235,000 after purchasing an additional 2,218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 602.6% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 11,712 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,225,000 after purchasing an additional 10,045 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VRSN. Citigroup upped their price objective 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. StockNews.com lowered VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Baird R W upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upgraded VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Stock Up 1.2 %

VRSN opened at $253.87 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $231.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $205.23. VeriSign, Inc. has a twelve month low of $167.05 and a twelve month high of $256.35. The stock has a market cap of $24.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.73 and a beta of 0.87.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 negative return on equity of 43.01% and a net margin of 50.47%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other VeriSign news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at $5,500,586.25. This trade represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.