CapWealth Advisors LLC Sells 165 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

CapWealth Advisors LLC lessened its stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 3.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,799 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 165 shares during the quarter. CapWealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $988,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of VRSN. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of VeriSign in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $201,956,000. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 6.9% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 9,152,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,934,092,000 after acquiring an additional 587,635 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 14.7% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,826,836 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $369,989,000 after acquiring an additional 233,811 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 99.0% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,523 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $89,624,000 after acquiring an additional 220,106 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 471.6% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 238,978 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $49,220,000 after acquiring an additional 197,169 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insider Buying and Selling at VeriSign

In other VeriSign news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 613 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.05, for a total value of $122,017.65. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 34,816 shares in the company, valued at $6,930,124.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 613 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.05, for a total value of $122,017.65. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 34,816 shares in the company, valued at $6,930,124.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,875 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 30,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,999,500.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 14,877 shares of company stock worth $2,878,864 over the last ninety days. 0.94% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN traded up $1.53 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $183.10. The stock had a trading volume of 210,194 shares, compared to its average volume of 567,824. The firm has a market cap of $18.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.93 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $191.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $201.06. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $181.57 and a 52 week high of $229.72.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The information services provider reported $1.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $380.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $381.01 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 46.56% and a net margin of 54.74%. As a group, research analysts expect that VeriSign, Inc. will post 7.82 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.