GraniteShares Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

GraniteShares Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 2,458 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $509,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its holdings in VeriSign by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 693,369 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $131,712,000 after acquiring an additional 47,412 shares during the last quarter. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors bought a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at about $141,129,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 26.3% in the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 580,613 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $110,293,000 after acquiring an additional 120,958 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 527,551 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $100,214,000 after acquiring an additional 9,574 shares during the period. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 428,647 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $81,426,000 after acquiring an additional 46,677 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In other VeriSign 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 value of $402,563.56. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 26,157 shares in the company, valued at $5,033,391.51. The trade was 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 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. This represents 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 company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

VeriSign Stock Up 2.2 %

NASDAQ VRSN opened at $238.24 on Wednesday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $167.04 and a 12-month high of $239.05. The company has a market capitalization of $22.54 billion, a PE ratio of 29.78 and a beta of 0.90. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $213.95 and its 200-day moving average is $194.95.

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, meeting 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.