E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Acquires 930 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 74.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,176 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 930 shares during the quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $450,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of VRSN. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in VeriSign by 544.1% during 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 fourth quarter. Birch Capital Management LLC now owns 4,096 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $848,000 after purchasing an additional 3,996 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 322.2% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 261,526 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $53,639,000 after purchasing an additional 199,583 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 12.2% in the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 20,462 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,235,000 after buying an additional 2,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC boosted its stake in VeriSign by 602.6% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 11,712 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,225,000 after buying an additional 10,045 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Citigroup lifted their price objective on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Baird R W raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Price Performance

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $240.47 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.06 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $220.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $198.24. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1 year low of $167.04 and a 1 year high of $242.23.

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

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

In other news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total value of $103,592.25. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Company 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.