Amundi Sells 26,514 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Key Points

• Amundi reduced its VeriSign stake by 4.8% in the second quarter, selling 26,514 shares and retaining 521,466 shares valued at approximately $131.2 million. Institutional investors collectively own 92.9% of the company.
• VeriSign reported quarterly EPS of $2.38 and revenue of $434.6 million, narrowly exceeding analyst estimates, while revenue increased 6% year over year.
• Analyst sentiment remains positive, with a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $333, compared with the stock’s reported opening price of $286.94. The company also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.81, yielding about 1.1% annually.

Amundi decreased its position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Free Report) by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 521,466 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 26,514 shares during the period. Amundi owned about 0.58% of VeriSign worth $131,180,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of VRSN. DV Equities LLC bought a new position in shares of VeriSign during the 4th quarter worth $28,000. Addison Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in VeriSign during the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its position in VeriSign by 429.2% during the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 127 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the period. PenderFund Capital Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign in the second quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of VeriSign by 25.3% in the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In other news, CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.94, for a total value of $828,102.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 426,139 shares of the company's stock, valued at $106,935,320.66. This represents a 0.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 39,800 shares of company stock valued at $11,001,408. 0.56% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on VRSN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of VeriSign in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $333.00.

VeriSign Stock Up 1.7%

VeriSign stock opened at $286.94 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $25.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.12 and a beta of 0.70. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $281.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $270.71. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $208.86 and a 52 week high of $312.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $434.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $433.19 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 39.20% and a net margin of 49.76%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.21 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were paid a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 19th. VeriSign's payout ratio is currently 35.14%.

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc NASDAQ: VRSN is a global provider of internet infrastructure and domain name registry services. The company operates the authoritative registry for the .com and .net top-level domains, maintaining the systems that support the registration and resolution of millions of internet addresses worldwide.

VeriSign's services include domain registry operations, Domain Name System (DNS) services, DNS security and stability solutions, and related internet infrastructure. Its systems help domain name registrars, businesses, governments and internet users access websites and online services reliably.

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