California Public Employees Retirement System Cuts Holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

California Public Employees Retirement System cut its position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 2.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 559,628 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 14,847 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.55% of VeriSign worth $115,261,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its holdings in VeriSign by 52.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 152 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. Baldwin Brothers LLC MA increased its holdings in VeriSign by 158.6% during the 4th quarter. Baldwin Brothers LLC MA now owns 181 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in VeriSign by 91.7% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 347 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 166 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in VeriSign by 251.5% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 355 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 254 shares during the period. Finally, CX Institutional bought a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter worth $79,000. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VRSN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of VeriSign from $237.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Todd B. Strubbe sold 9,423 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.21, for a total value of $1,820,617.83. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 111,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,552,768.71. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 614 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total transaction of $116,660.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 42,569 shares in the company, valued at $8,088,110. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, COO Todd B. Strubbe sold 9,423 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.21, for a total transaction of $1,820,617.83. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 111,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,552,768.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 14,877 shares of company stock worth $2,878,864. 0.94% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

VeriSign Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of VRSN opened at $185.12 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.37 and a beta of 0.88. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $190.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $200.48. VeriSign, Inc. has a twelve month low of $181.57 and a twelve month high of $229.72.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The information services provider reported $1.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $380.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $381.01 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 54.74% and a negative return on equity of 46.56%. Sell-side analysts expect that VeriSign, Inc. will post 7.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.