Kentucky Retirement Systems Sells 79 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Kentucky Retirement Systems cut its position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,768 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 79 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in VeriSign were worth $1,194,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its position in VeriSign by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 3,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $577,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc. lifted its position in VeriSign by 3.9% during the third quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,537 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. CX Institutional increased its position in VeriSign by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $243,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC grew its position in VeriSign by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 1,429 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $296,000 after acquiring an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Keystone Financial Services grew its holdings in VeriSign by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Keystone Financial Services now owns 1,137 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $235,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

VeriSign Price Performance

NASDAQ VRSN opened at $231.87 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.98 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $212.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $194.11. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $167.04 and a 1-year high of $236.20.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share 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%.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In other news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.43, for a total value of $402,563.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 26,157 shares in the company, valued at $5,033,391.51. This represents a 7.41 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSN has been the topic of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird raised shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company 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 research note on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th.

VeriSign 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.