Nordea Investment Management AB Boosts Stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Free Report) by 544.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 391,319 shares of the information services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 330,561 shares during the quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB owned approximately 0.41% of VeriSign worth $81,003,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Everence Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the fourth quarter valued at about $329,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in VeriSign by 29.4% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,025 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $419,000 after purchasing an additional 460 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in VeriSign by 59.4% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 102,042 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $19,224,000 after purchasing an additional 38,036 shares during the last quarter. Tri Ri Asset Management Corp acquired a new position in VeriSign during the 3rd quarter worth about $5,204,000. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of VeriSign by 54.8% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 27,175 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $5,162,000 after buying an additional 9,619 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of VRSN stock traded up $2.45 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $211.67. 767,075 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 923,714. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $191.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $185.06. The firm has a market cap of $20.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.61 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 quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The information services provider reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.01 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $390.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $390.19 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 55.74% and a negative return on equity of 45.59%. The business's revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.83 earnings per share.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 1,228 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $233,320.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 33,593 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,382,670. This trade represents a 3.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total transaction of $402,563.56. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 26,157 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,033,391.51. This represents a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.84% of the company's stock.

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.