VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Acquires New Holdings in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Key Points

• Virginia Retirement Systems acquired 269,004 VeriSign shares worth approximately $67.7 million in the second quarter, while institutional investors and hedge funds collectively own 92.9% of the stock.
• Analyst sentiment is positive, with an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $333; Wedbush raised its target to $341 and Zacks upgraded the stock to “strong buy.”
• VeriSign exceeded quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $2.38 in EPS and $434.6 million in revenue, up 6% year over year. The company also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.81 per share, while insiders sold shares under pre-arranged trading plans.

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 269,004 shares of the information services provider's stock, valued at approximately $67,671,000. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al owned approximately 0.30% of VeriSign as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of VRSN. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 16,352 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,973,000 after purchasing an additional 5,267 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 208.5% in the first quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 13,385 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $3,324,000 after purchasing an additional 9,046 shares in the last quarter. Kepler Cheuvreux Suisse SA acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the fourth quarter worth $13,636,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in VeriSign during the second quarter valued at $2,116,154,000. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in VeriSign by 40.4% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 454,292 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $110,370,000 after acquiring an additional 130,683 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $292.08 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $26.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.68 and a beta of 0.70. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $279.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $269.23. VeriSign, Inc. has a twelve month low of $208.86 and a twelve month high of $312.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.02. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 39.20% and a net margin of 49.76%.The company had revenue of $434.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $433.19 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.21 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. VeriSign's dividend payout ratio is 35.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling at VeriSign

In related news, CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.09, for a total transaction of $960,597.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 394,927 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $114,959,300.43. The trade was a 0.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Thomas Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $290.78, for a total value of $145,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 33,395 shares in the company, valued at $9,710,598.10. This trade represents a 1.48% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 39,800 shares of company stock worth $10,998,235 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company's stock.

VeriSign Company Profile

VeriSign, Inc NASDAQ: VRSN is an internet infrastructure company that operates critical components of the global Domain Name System (DNS) and provides cybersecurity-related services. The company is best known as the authoritative registry operator for the .com and .net top-level domains, maintaining the central databases and zone files that enable domain name resolution for millions of websites. VeriSign's registry role is performed under contractual agreements with Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and involves high-availability, highly secure operations to support continuous internet connectivity.

In addition to its registry business, VeriSign offers a suite of services designed to protect and accelerate DNS and internet traffic for enterprises and service providers.

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