State Street Corp Increases Stock Holdings in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Key Points

• State Street increased its VeriSign stake by 1.8% to 4.15 million shares valued at approximately $1.04 billion. Institutional investors collectively own 92.9% of the company, with Berkshire Hathaway and BlackRock also establishing major positions.
• VeriSign reported quarterly earnings of $2.38 per share, exceeding estimates of $2.36, while revenue rose 6% year over year to $434.6 million. Shares opened at $299.42, near their 52-week high, with a market capitalization of about $27.04 billion.
• Analysts maintain a generally positive outlook, with an average “Buy” rating and a $333 price target. VeriSign also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.81 per share, while insiders have sold shares under pre-arranged trading plans in recent months.

State Street Corp boosted its stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Free Report) by 1.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,150,727 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 73,583 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp owned approximately 4.60% of VeriSign worth $1,044,157,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 2nd quarter worth $2,261,494,000. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of VeriSign during the second quarter valued at about $2,116,154,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 1.4% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 2,818,151 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $699,916,000 after purchasing an additional 38,800 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in VeriSign in the 4th quarter worth about $312,900,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in VeriSign by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 960,991 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $233,473,000 after purchasing an additional 71,570 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of VRSN opened at $299.42 on Wednesday. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $208.86 and a fifty-two week high of $312.48. The business has a 50-day moving average of $287.12 and a 200 day moving average of $275.48. The firm has a market cap of $27.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.48 and a beta of 0.70.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $434.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $433.19 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 49.76% and a negative return on equity of 39.20%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.21 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of VeriSign in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Wedbush upped their price objective on VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $333.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, EVP Thomas Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.16, for a total transaction of $144,580.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 32,895 shares in the company, valued at $9,511,918.20. This represents a 1.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $296.58, for a total value of $978,714.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 388,327 shares of the company's stock, valued at $115,170,021.66. The trade was a 0.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 36,500 shares of company stock worth $10,255,047 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.56% of the company's stock.

VeriSign Profile

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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