VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN Shares Sold by Ninety One SA PTY Ltd

Ninety One SA PTY Ltd decreased its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 34.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 14,281 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 7,465 shares during the quarter. Ninety One SA PTY Ltd’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $3,981,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,582,645 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $3,056,268,000 after buying an additional 68,355 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,932,243 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,135,632,000 after acquiring an additional 73,931 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in VeriSign by 32.9% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,097,003 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $894,414,000 after purchasing an additional 767,363 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 2.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,326,799 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $670,685,000 after purchasing an additional 44,751 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 71.3% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 1,202,278 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $307,098,000 after purchasing an additional 500,223 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on VRSN. Zacks Research cut shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird set a $325.00 price objective on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Friday, October 24th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on VeriSign in a research report on Tuesday, October 28th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $270.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of VeriSign in a report on Friday, October 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, VeriSign has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $281.67.

VeriSign Trading Down 1.2%

NASDAQ VRSN opened at $242.95 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $246.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $266.63. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $203.66 and a 52 week high of $310.60. The stock has a market cap of $22.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.32 and a beta of 0.78.

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. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 40.66% and a net margin of 49.86%.The company had revenue of $419.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $416.71 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.07 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, November 25th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 18th were paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 18th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.90%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.57, for a total transaction of $1,327,850.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 471,439 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $125,200,055.23. This trade represents a 1.05% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $236.87, for a total transaction of $592,175.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 28,577 shares in the company, valued at $6,769,033.99. This trade represents a 8.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 47,839 shares of company stock worth $12,042,404 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign 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.