Appleton Partners Inc. MA Sells 1,500 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Appleton Partners Inc. MA lowered its position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Free Report) by 25.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,510 shares of the information services provider's stock after selling 1,500 shares during the period. Appleton Partners Inc. MA's holdings in VeriSign were worth $1,145,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cache Advisors LLC acquired a new position in VeriSign during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $685,000. Truist Financial Corp grew its holdings in VeriSign by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 20,462 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $4,235,000 after purchasing an additional 2,218 shares during the last quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc grew its holdings in VeriSign by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 13,271,457 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $2,746,661,000 after purchasing an additional 455,844 shares during the last quarter. United Super Pty Ltd in its capacity as Trustee for the Construction & Building Unions Superannuation Fund bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $600,000. Finally, Albert D Mason Inc. bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the first quarter valued at approximately $321,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSN has been the subject of several research reports. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on VeriSign from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Wall Street Zen raised VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, April 12th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, Director Yehuda Ari Buchalter sold 600 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.79, for a total transaction of $170,274.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 3,735 shares in the company, valued at $1,059,955.65. The trade was a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP John Calys sold 400 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction on Friday, May 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.97, for a total transaction of $112,788.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 23,335 shares in the company, valued at $6,579,769.95. This represents a 1.69% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 25,002 shares of company stock worth $7,013,599 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.84% of the company's stock.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of VRSN traded down $0.43 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $280.73. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,026,545 shares, compared to its average volume of 758,003. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $172.49 and a one year high of $288.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.36 billion, a PE ratio of 34.32 and a beta of 0.77. The stock's 50-day moving average is $273.64 and its two-hundred day moving average is $240.89.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.10 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.10. The company had revenue of $402.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $400.44 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 41.37% and a net margin of 50.23%. VeriSign's revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.92 earnings per share.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a -- dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 19th. VeriSign's dividend payout ratio is currently 37.65%.

About VeriSign

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.