8,455 Shares in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN Purchased by Vise Technologies Inc.

Vise Technologies Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 8,455 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,384,000.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the second quarter worth $2,261,494,000. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter worth $2,116,154,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in VeriSign in the 2nd quarter valued at $172,641,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new position in VeriSign in the 2nd quarter valued at $145,362,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in VeriSign in the 2nd quarter worth $126,420,000. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on VRSN. Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of VeriSign from $351.00 to $367.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Robert W. Baird set a $380.00 price objective on VeriSign in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Zacks Research downgraded VeriSign from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised VeriSign from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Four 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 has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $352.00.

VeriSign Price Performance

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $312.06 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $27.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.98 and a beta of 0.66. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $208.86 and a one year high of $324.63. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $297.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $272.67.

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

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 17th will be paid a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 17th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 34.84%.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In related news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 3,256 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.89, for a total transaction of $989,465.84. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 30,548 shares in the company, valued at $9,283,231.72. The trade was a 9.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.38, for a total value of $154,690.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 31,395 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,712,985.10. This trade represents a 1.57% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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 worth $13,556,803. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign 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.