4,778 Shares in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) Acquired by Merit Financial Group LLC

Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,778 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $989,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Troy Asset Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the second quarter valued at about $109,040,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in VeriSign by 836.8% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 473,187 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $84,133,000 after acquiring an additional 422,676 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in VeriSign by 544.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 391,319 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $81,003,000 after acquiring an additional 330,561 shares during the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP bought a new position in shares of VeriSign during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $46,455,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 44.5% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 788,687 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $139,771,000 after acquiring an additional 242,884 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on VRSN shares. Baird R W upgraded shares of VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of VeriSign from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com upgraded VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on VeriSign from $210.00 to $238.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total value of $402,563.56. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 26,157 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,033,391.51. This represents a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.84% of the company's stock.

VeriSign Price Performance

NASDAQ VRSN traded down $3.29 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $207.13. 674,471 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 779,544. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $197.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $187.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.08 and a beta of 0.89. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $167.04 and a fifty-two week high of $213.68.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The information services provider reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.01 by $0.06. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 45.59% and a net margin of 55.74%. The business had revenue of $390.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $390.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.83 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last 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.