Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 694,523 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Free Report) by 64.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 377,684 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 694,523 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.39% of VeriSign worth $78,166,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors bought a new stake in VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at about $141,129,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings 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 valued at $81,003,000 after buying an additional 330,561 shares in the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the third quarter worth about $46,455,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of VeriSign by 322.2% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 261,526 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $53,639,000 after acquiring an additional 199,583 shares during the period. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in VeriSign during the third quarter valued at approximately $35,665,000. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on VRSN. Citigroup raised 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. StockNews.com upgraded VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Baird R W raised VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised VeriSign from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSN traded down $0.88 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $233.00. The company's stock had a trading volume of 380,122 shares, compared to its average volume of 744,433. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12 month low of $167.04 and a 12 month high of $236.20. The stock has a market cap of $22.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.13 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $211.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $193.50.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at VeriSign

In other VeriSign news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total transaction of $402,563.56. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 26,157 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,033,391.51. The trade was a 7.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.84% of the company's stock.

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.