Gries Financial LLC Purchases 317 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Gries Financial LLC grew its position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 24.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,620 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 317 shares during the quarter. Gries Financial LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $335,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 544.1% in 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 acquiring an additional 330,561 shares in the last quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 3,996.0% during the 4th quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC now owns 4,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $848,000 after purchasing an additional 3,996 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 602.6% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 11,712 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,225,000 after purchasing an additional 10,045 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $989,000. Finally, Burney Co. boosted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 19.5% in the fourth quarter. Burney Co. now owns 9,060 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,875,000 after buying an additional 1,479 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at VeriSign

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on VRSN shares. Robert W. Baird upgraded VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup raised their price target on VeriSign from $210.00 to $238.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. 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 report on Tuesday, January 7th.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of VRSN opened at $214.01 on Friday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52-week low of $167.04 and a 52-week high of $216.83. The firm has a market cap of $20.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.88 and a beta of 0.89. The business’s fifty day moving average is $200.91 and its 200-day moving average is $188.76.

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.