VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) Stake Lifted by Sivia Capital Partners LLC

Sivia Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Free Report) by 76.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,578 shares of the information services provider's stock after buying an additional 1,121 shares during the quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC's holdings in VeriSign were worth $654,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. Spire Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 69.8% in the fourth quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 253 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 97.7% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 23,922 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $4,897,000 after purchasing an additional 11,822 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 232,307 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $48,078,000 after purchasing an additional 833 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 11,318 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,342,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of VeriSign in the fourth quarter worth $483,000. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on VRSN. Wall Street Zen raised VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, April 12th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on VeriSign from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 25th.

VeriSign Stock Up 2.6%

Shares of VeriSign stock opened at $285.02 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $26.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.63 and a beta of 0.77. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $266.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $234.02. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $172.49 and a fifty-two week high of $288.95.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) last announced 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 business had revenue of $402.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $400.44 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 43.01% and a net margin of 50.47%. The company's revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.92 earnings per share.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a -- dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 19th were issued a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, May 19th. VeriSign's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.65%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP John Calys sold 400 shares of the company's 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 23,335 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,579,769.95. This represents a 1.69% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Yehuda Ari Buchalter sold 600 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.79, for a total value of $170,274.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 3,735 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,059,955.65. This represents a 13.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,002 shares of company stock valued at $2,525,659 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.84% of the company's stock.

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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