California Public Employees Retirement System Has $80.06 Million Stock Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

California Public Employees Retirement System cut its holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Free Report) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 386,815 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 2,380 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.40% of VeriSign worth $80,055,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of VeriSign by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,284,759 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $265,894,000 after acquiring an additional 116,833 shares during the last quarter. Allianz SE acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,420,000. Allstate Corp bought a new position in VeriSign in the 4th quarter worth approximately $542,000. Troy Asset Management Ltd raised its position in VeriSign by 49.1% in the 4th quarter. Troy Asset Management Ltd now owns 914,543 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $189,274,000 after purchasing an additional 301,267 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DnB Asset Management AS lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. DnB Asset Management AS now owns 15,210 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $3,148,000 after buying an additional 229 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total value of $103,592.25. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.84% of the stock is owned by insiders.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN stock traded down $15.23 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $240.20. The company had a trading volume of 1,875,315 shares, compared to its average volume of 731,999. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $167.05 and a 1-year high of $258.67. The firm has a market cap of $22.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.03 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a 50 day moving average of $234.69 and a 200 day moving average of $207.00.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.00. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 43.01% and a net margin of 50.47%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on VRSN shares. Baird R W upgraded VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on VeriSign from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th.

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.