Cumberland Partners Ltd Takes $206,000 Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Cumberland Partners Ltd bought a new stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 1,000 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 52.0% during the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 152 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares in the last quarter. Baldwin Brothers LLC MA raised its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 158.6% during the fourth quarter. Baldwin Brothers LLC MA now owns 181 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 91.7% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 347 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 251.5% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 355 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 254 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the fourth quarter worth $79,000. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,875 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.19, for a total value of $558,296.25. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 30,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,999,500.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,875 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.19, for a total transaction of $558,296.25. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 30,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,999,500.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 613 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.33, for a total value of $119,737.29. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 43,143 shares in the company, valued at $8,427,122.19. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 14,877 shares of company stock valued at $2,878,864. 0.94% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on VRSN. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of VeriSign from $237.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSN traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $185.02. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 464,725 shares, compared to its average volume of 573,768. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.37 and a beta of 0.88. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $190.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $200.48. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $181.01 and a fifty-two week high of $229.72.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $380.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $381.01 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 46.56% and a net margin of 54.74%. As a group, analysts anticipate that VeriSign, Inc. will post 7.82 EPS for the current year.

VeriSign Company 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.