VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) Stock Price Target Raised at Wedbush

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) had its price target lifted by Wedbush from $341.00 to $351.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Wedbush’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 15.56% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded VeriSign from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Monday, October 12th. Zacks Research downgraded VeriSign from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $335.50.

VeriSign Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of VRSN opened at $303.74 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $27.43 billion, a PE ratio of 32.82 and a beta of 0.69. The company’s fifty day moving average is $291.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $282.01. VeriSign has a fifty-two week low of $208.86 and a fifty-two week high of $312.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $434.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $433.19 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 49.76% and a negative return on equity of 39.20%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.21 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that VeriSign will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.20, for a total transaction of $927,960.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 412,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $116,118,446.80. The trade was a 0.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 43,100 shares of company stock worth $12,456,053 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On VeriSign

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 15.2% during the third quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 1,263 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $356,000 after acquiring an additional 167 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 137.2% during the third quarter. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. now owns 12,327 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,476,000 after acquiring an additional 7,130 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 25.1% during the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,765 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,199,000 after acquiring an additional 955 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,150,727 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,044,157,000 after acquiring an additional 73,583 shares during the period. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 28.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,612 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,663,000 after acquiring an additional 1,454 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc (NASDAQ: VRSN) provides internet infrastructure services that support the global domain name system. The company operates the authoritative registry for the .com and .net top-level domains and provides registry services for certain other domains, helping maintain the databases that connect domain names with internet addresses.

The company’s services include domain name registry operations, domain name registration-related support for accredited registrars, and infrastructure designed to improve the availability, stability, and security of internet naming services.