VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) Rating Lowered to "Hold" at StockNews.com

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report released on Friday.

VRSN has been the subject of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird upgraded VeriSign from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. Baird R W raised shares of VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN traded up $0.85 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $245.36. The stock had a trading volume of 690,178 shares, compared to its average volume of 691,056. VeriSign has a 1-year low of $167.05 and a 1-year high of $247.91. The company has a market cap of $23.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.67 and a beta of 0.87. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $226.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $202.36.

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VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) 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

In other VeriSign news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total transaction of $103,592.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.84% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of VeriSign

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of VRSN. Norges Bank bought a new stake in VeriSign in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $222,840,000. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors acquired a new stake in VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at $141,129,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in VeriSign by 268.8% during the fourth quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 692,498 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $143,319,000 after acquiring an additional 504,748 shares in the last quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc boosted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 13,271,457 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,746,661,000 after buying an additional 455,844 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 58.2% in the 4th quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,097,129 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $227,062,000 after acquiring an additional 403,760 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% 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.