Employees Retirement System of Texas Invests $6.34 Million in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Employees Retirement System of Texas purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 21,954 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,340,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Choreo LLC lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 15.9% in the second quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 1,855 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $536,000 after purchasing an additional 255 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in VeriSign by 21.6% during the 2nd quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 383,179 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $110,657,000 after buying an additional 68,029 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter worth about $3,726,000. Summit Global Investments lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 228.6% in the 2nd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 17,328 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $5,004,000 after acquiring an additional 12,055 shares during the period. Finally, Waterloo Capital L.P. lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 12.2% in the 2nd quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 1,715 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $495,000 after acquiring an additional 187 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on VRSN. Robert W. Baird set a $325.00 target price on VeriSign in a report on Friday, October 24th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on VeriSign in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $270.00 price objective for the company. Zacks Research raised VeriSign to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Friday, October 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $281.67.

VeriSign Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of NASDAQ VRSN opened at $252.67 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $259.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $272.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.45 and a beta of 0.76. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52-week low of $185.33 and a 52-week high of $310.60.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.27 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.25 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $419.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $416.71 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 40.66% and a net margin of 49.86%.VeriSign’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.07 EPS. VeriSign has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 18th were issued a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 18th. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. VeriSign’s payout ratio is currently 35.90%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $236.87, for a total value of $592,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 28,577 shares in the company, valued at $6,769,033.99. This represents a 8.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP John Calys sold 1,001 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $242.71, for a total value of $242,952.71. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 24,734 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,003,189.14. This trade represents a 3.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 47,839 shares of company stock worth $12,660,539 in the last quarter. 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.