GraniteShares Advisors LLC Takes $509,000 Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

GraniteShares Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,458 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $509,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors purchased a new position in VeriSign during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $141,129,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in VeriSign by 544.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 391,319 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $81,003,000 after purchasing an additional 330,561 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in VeriSign by 322.2% during 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 purchasing an additional 199,583 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in VeriSign during the third quarter valued at approximately $35,665,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its position in VeriSign by 56.8% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 383,100 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $79,286,000 after purchasing an additional 138,796 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on VRSN shares. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Baird R W raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total transaction of $402,563.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 26,157 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,033,391.51. This represents a 7.41 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total transaction of $103,592.25. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.84% of the stock is owned by insiders.

VeriSign Stock Up 2.2 %

VRSN stock opened at $238.24 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.78 and a beta of 0.90. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12 month low of $167.04 and a 12 month high of $239.05. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $213.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $194.95.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.00. VeriSign had a net margin of 50.47% and a negative return on equity of 43.01%.

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.