Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Has $20.89 Million Stock Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Free Report) by 13.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 100,917 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 12,149 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned about 0.11% of VeriSign worth $20,886,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,701,154 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $352,071,000 after purchasing an additional 35,326 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings 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 valued at $265,894,000 after purchasing an additional 116,833 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in VeriSign in the fourth quarter valued at about $222,840,000. Troy Asset Management Ltd increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 49.1% in the 4th quarter. Troy Asset Management Ltd now owns 914,543 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $189,274,000 after purchasing an additional 301,267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 17.8% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 702,055 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $148,604,000 after buying an additional 106,094 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on VRSN. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of VeriSign from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. StockNews.com upgraded VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, April 12th. Finally, Citigroup increased 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 Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of VeriSign stock traded up $3.28 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $251.36. The stock had a trading volume of 876,571 shares, compared to its average volume of 746,846. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $241.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $212.54. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1 year low of $167.05 and a 1 year high of $258.67. The company has a market capitalization of $23.66 billion, a PE ratio of 31.42 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In other news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was 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 directly owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. This trade represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.