New York State Common Retirement Fund Has $21.13 Million Stock Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lowered its stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Free Report) by 7.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 102,573 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 8,383 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.10% of VeriSign worth $21,126,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of VRSN. Duality Advisers LP increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 142.0% in the 4th quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 29,874 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $6,153,000 after acquiring an additional 17,529 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 142.7% in the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 45,707 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $9,414,000 after acquiring an additional 26,872 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC grew its stake in VeriSign by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,960 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $610,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its stake in VeriSign by 17.2% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 10,042 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,068,000 after buying an additional 1,471 shares during the last quarter. Finally, abrdn plc grew its stake in VeriSign by 35.3% during the 4th quarter. abrdn plc now owns 46,085 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $9,492,000 after buying an additional 12,029 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Todd B. Strubbe sold 9,423 shares of VeriSign 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 111,551 shares of the company's stock, valued at $21,552,768.71. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, COO Todd B. Strubbe sold 9,423 shares of VeriSign 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 111,551 shares of the company's stock, valued at $21,552,768.71. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 613 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.05, for a total value of $122,017.65. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 34,816 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,930,124.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 14,877 shares of company stock valued at $2,878,864. 0.94% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on VeriSign from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Citigroup lowered their target price on VeriSign from $237.00 to $236.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded VeriSign from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd.

VeriSign Trading Down 3.9 %

Shares of VRSN traded down $7.20 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $175.48. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,931,523 shares, compared to its average volume of 646,443. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $189.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $199.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.56 and a beta of 0.88. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $174.51 and a 1-year high of $229.72.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.86 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $384.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $381.85 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 47.39% and a net margin of 55.04%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.70 EPS.

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.