21,737 Shares in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN Purchased by Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 21,737 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,130,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VRSN. Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a new position in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,261,494,000. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in VeriSign in the second quarter worth $2,116,154,000. State Street Corp increased its position in VeriSign by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,150,727 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,044,157,000 after purchasing an additional 73,583 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its stake 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 valued at $699,916,000 after purchasing an additional 38,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP raised its stake in VeriSign by 48.5% during the first quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 915,012 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $227,252,000 after purchasing an additional 298,895 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on VRSN shares. Zacks Research lowered shares of VeriSign from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $351.00 to $367.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of VeriSign from $325.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $352.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other VeriSign news, CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.09, for a total value of $960,597.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 394,927 shares in the company, valued at $114,959,300.43. This trade represents a 0.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 45,856 shares of company stock valued at $13,556,803. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Price Performance

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $312.06 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.55 and a beta of 0.66. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1 year low of $208.86 and a 1 year high of $324.63. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $297.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $272.67.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The information services provider reported $2.35 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.46 by ($0.11). VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 49.06%. The company had revenue of $443.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $440.58 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.27 EPS. VeriSign’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 24th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 17th will be given a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 17th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio is 34.84%.

VeriSign Company Profile

VeriSign, Inc (NASDAQ: VRSN) provides internet infrastructure services that support the global domain name system. The company operates the authoritative registry for the .com and .net top-level domains and provides registry services for certain other domains, helping maintain the databases that connect domain names with internet addresses.

The company’s services include domain name registry operations, domain name registration-related support for accredited registrars, and infrastructure designed to improve the availability, stability, and security of internet naming services.