Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC Acquires 377 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 4.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,746 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 377 shares during the quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $2,017,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 45,290 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $9,373,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares during the period. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC boosted its position in VeriSign by 17,553.1% in the fourth quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 25,244 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,224,000 after purchasing an additional 25,101 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 4th quarter valued at about $222,840,000. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,162,000. Finally, Korea Investment CORP lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 42.3% in the 4th quarter. Korea Investment CORP now owns 29,943 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $6,197,000 after purchasing an additional 8,900 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $255.50 on Thursday. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $167.05 and a one year high of $257.70. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $233.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $206.09. The company has a market capitalization of $24.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.94 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of VeriSign from $255.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup raised their target price on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com lowered VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Baird R W raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th.

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.