Alaska Permanent Fund Corp Raises Holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Alaska Permanent Fund Corp raised its position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 36,325 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 576 shares during the period. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $7,481,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. boosted its position in shares of VeriSign by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 272,103 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $56,042,000 after buying an additional 25,639 shares during the period. Duality Advisers LP boosted its position 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 worth $6,153,000 after buying an additional 17,529 shares during the period. NewEdge Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of VeriSign by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 72,544 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $14,941,000 after buying an additional 9,888 shares during the period. Seven Eight Capital LP raised its stake in shares of VeriSign by 41.4% in the third quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 1,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $382,000 after acquiring an additional 553 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. raised its stake in shares of VeriSign by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 85,196 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,547,000 after acquiring an additional 8,710 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Todd B. Strubbe sold 9,423 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.21, for a total transaction of $1,820,617.83. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 111,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,552,768.71. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other VeriSign news, COO Todd B. Strubbe sold 9,423 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.21, for a total value of $1,820,617.83. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 111,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $21,552,768.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,875 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.19, for a total value of $558,296.25. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 30,895 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,999,500.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 14,877 shares of company stock valued at $2,878,864. 0.94% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

VeriSign Stock Down 1.3 %

VeriSign stock traded down $2.48 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $183.07. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 49,598 shares, compared to its average volume of 569,981. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $181.01 and a fifty-two week high of $229.72. The company has a market cap of $18.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.43 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $189.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $200.37.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The information services provider reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.09. The company 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that VeriSign, Inc. will post 7.82 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VRSN has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com cut VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Citigroup cut their price target on VeriSign from $237.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd.

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.