4,170 Shares in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) Acquired by EP Wealth Advisors LLC

EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,170 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $792,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in VeriSign by 291.1% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 176 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 131 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in VeriSign by 117.2% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 202 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign in the second quarter valued at about $38,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new position in shares of VeriSign during the second quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Concord Wealth Partners boosted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 93.2% during the third quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 226 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

In other news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 2,456 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $466,640.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 34,821 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,615,990. The trade was a 6.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,092 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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. The trade was a 7.41 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,776 shares of company stock valued at $1,102,524 in the last three months. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on VRSN. Robert W. Baird raised VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday. Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday.

VeriSign Stock Performance

VeriSign stock opened at $200.53 on Wednesday. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $167.04 and a fifty-two week high of $220.91. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $185.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $181.49. The stock has a market cap of $19.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.32 and a beta of 0.92.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The information services provider reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.01 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $390.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $390.19 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 45.59% and a net margin of 55.74%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.83 earnings per share.

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.