AGF Management Ltd. Cuts Stock Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

AGF Management Ltd. trimmed its position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 24.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,694 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 4,666 shares during the period. AGF Management Ltd.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $3,041,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 12,934 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,677,000 after acquiring an additional 705 shares during the last quarter. Schaper Benz & Wise Investment Counsel Inc. WI lifted its stake in VeriSign by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Schaper Benz & Wise Investment Counsel Inc. WI now owns 14,595 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,021,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp lifted its stake 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 worth $2,288,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its position in VeriSign by 17.8% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 702,055 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $148,604,000 after buying an additional 106,094 shares during the period. Finally, West Family Investments Inc. grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $391,000 after buying an additional 351 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on VRSN shares. StockNews.com lowered VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th.

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

In other VeriSign news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total transaction of $103,592.25. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Price Performance

VRSN opened at $235.60 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.45 and a beta of 0.87. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $167.04 and a one year high of $242.23. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $222.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $199.44.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 EPS for the quarter, meeting 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.