Marks Group Wealth Management Inc Raises Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Marks Group Wealth Management Inc raised its position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 2.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,215 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 122 shares during the period. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $1,280,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in VeriSign by 100.3% during the fourth quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 711 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $146,000 after purchasing an additional 356 shares in the last quarter. Duality Advisers LP grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 142.0% during the fourth quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 29,874 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,153,000 after buying an additional 17,529 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 142.7% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 45,707 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $9,414,000 after buying an additional 26,872 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,960 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $610,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 17.2% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 10,042 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,068,000 after buying an additional 1,471 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at VeriSign

In other news, COO Todd B. Strubbe sold 9,423 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.21, for a total transaction of $1,820,617.83. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 111,551 shares in the company, valued at $21,552,768.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, COO Todd B. Strubbe sold 9,423 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.21, for a total transaction of $1,820,617.83. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 111,551 shares in the company, valued at $21,552,768.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 613 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total transaction of $119,737.29. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 43,143 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,427,122.19. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 14,877 shares of company stock valued at $2,878,864. 0.94% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on VRSN. StockNews.com cut VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Citigroup cut their target price on VeriSign from $237.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSN traded up $0.59 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $185.33. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 311,354 shares, compared to its average volume of 570,016. The stock has a market cap of $18.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.32 and a beta of 0.88. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12 month low of $181.57 and a 12 month high of $229.72. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $190.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $200.63.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 8th. The information services provider reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $380.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $381.01 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 46.56% and a net margin of 54.74%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that VeriSign, Inc. will post 7.82 EPS for the current year.

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.