Generali Investments Management Co LLC Makes New $2.18 Million Investment in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Generali Investments Management Co LLC bought a new position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 10,538 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,181,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VRSN. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors acquired a new position in VeriSign during the fourth quarter worth about $141,129,000. Nordea Investment Management AB raised 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 worth $81,003,000 after acquiring an additional 330,561 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in VeriSign by 322.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 199,583 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in VeriSign during the third quarter worth about $35,665,000. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in VeriSign by 56.8% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 383,100 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $79,286,000 after acquiring an additional 138,796 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In related news, SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of the company’s 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 $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSN has been the topic of several research reports. StockNews.com cut VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Robert W. Baird upgraded 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 report on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup boosted their price target on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Baird R W upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $239.82 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $224.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $201.12. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $167.05 and a one year high of $242.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.69 billion, a PE ratio of 29.98 and a beta of 0.87.

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

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.