Verisign, Inc. (VRSN) Hedge Funds Are Snapping Up

Now, some big names were leading the bulls’ herd. Balyasny Asset Management, managed by Dmitry Balyasny, assembled the most outsized position in Verisign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN). Balyasny Asset Management had $5.6 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter. Scott Fine and Peter Richards’s Empire Capital Management also initiated a $1.4 million position during the quarter. The other funds with new positions in the stock are Michael Platt and William Reeves’s BlueCrest Capital Mgmt., Mike Vranos’s Ellington, and Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks – not necessarily in the same industry as Verisign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) but similarly valued. We will take a look at SEI Investments Company (NASDAQ:SEIC), Coach, Inc. (NYSE:COH), ANSYS, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS), and IHS Inc. (NYSE:IHS). This group of stocks’ market valuations matches Verisign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)’s market valuation.

As you can see, these stocks had an average of 25 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $554 million. That figure was $1.97 billion in Verisign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)’s case. SEI Investments Company (NASDAQ:SEIC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand, ANSYS, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS) is the least popular one with only 20 bullish hedge fund positions. Verisign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) is not the most popular stock in this group, but hedge fund interest is still above average. This is a slightly positive signal, but we’d rather spend our time researching stocks that hedge funds are piling on. In this regard, SEI Investments Company (NASDAQ:SEIC) might be a better candidate to consider a long position.