Somerville Kurt F Takes $254,000 Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Somerville Kurt F acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,000 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $254,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Berkshire Hathaway Inc grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 13,271,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,746,661,000 after buying an additional 455,844 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,701,154 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $352,071,000 after buying an additional 35,326 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 20.9% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,327,130 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $273,853,000 after buying an additional 229,311 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,284,759 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $265,894,000 after buying an additional 116,833 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 58.2% during the fourth quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,097,129 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $227,062,000 after buying an additional 403,760 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 5,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.71, for a total transaction of $1,383,550.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 544,772 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $150,743,860.12. The trade was a 0.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 40,004 shares of company stock worth $11,278,592 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.84% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of VeriSign from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 1st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, April 12th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a "buy" rating on shares of VeriSign in a report on Tuesday, July 8th.

VeriSign Trading Up 6.7%

VeriSign stock traded up $19.12 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $305.79. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,260,071 shares, compared to its average volume of 828,946. The firm has a market cap of $28.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.38 and a beta of 0.78. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $281.58 and a 200-day moving average price of $254.28. VeriSign, Inc. has a twelve month low of $172.49 and a twelve month high of $308.00.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The information services provider reported $2.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.20 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $409.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $410.35 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 50.23% and a negative return on equity of 41.37%. The firm's revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.01 earnings per share.

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

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th will be issued a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.01%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 19th. VeriSign's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.