Generali Asset Management SPA SGR Buys 5,596 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Key Points

• Generali Asset Management significantly increased its stake in VeriSign, purchasing 5,596 additional shares, raising its ownership by over 5,700% in the second quarter.
• CEO D James Bidzos recently sold 5,000 shares of VeriSign at an average price of $264.15, reducing his ownership by nearly 1% while still holding assets valued at over $134 million.
• VeriSign announced a stock repurchase program allowing the company to buy back $1.11 billion in shares, indicating management's belief that the stock is undervalued.

Generali Asset Management SPA SGR raised its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Free Report) by 5,710.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 5,694 shares of the information services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 5,596 shares during the period. Generali Asset Management SPA SGR's holdings in VeriSign were worth $1,644,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Quarry LP bought a new stake in VeriSign during the first quarter valued at about $641,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its holdings in VeriSign by 118.3% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 220,285 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $55,924,000 after purchasing an additional 119,368 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC bought a new stake in VeriSign during the first quarter valued at about $508,000. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign in the first quarter valued at about $351,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 35.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,746 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $697,000 after acquiring an additional 721 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In other news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 5,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.15, for a total transaction of $1,320,750.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 508,772 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $134,392,123.80. This represents a 0.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders sold a total of 38,706 shares of company stock worth $10,591,676 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.84% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on VeriSign from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 1st. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Citigroup restated a "buy" rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have issued a Buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $277.50.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $264.79 on Friday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1 year low of $175.62 and a 1 year high of $310.60. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $274.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $274.04. The company has a market cap of $24.73 billion, a PE ratio of 31.60 and a beta of 0.79.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The information services provider reported $2.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.20 by $0.01. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 40.87% and a net margin of 50.05%.The business had revenue of $409.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $410.35 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.01 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. VeriSign has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS.

VeriSign declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, July 24th that permits the company to repurchase $1.11 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information services provider to buy up to 4.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. VeriSign's dividend payout ratio is currently 36.75%.

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.

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