Canoe Financial LP Acquires Shares of 19,325 VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Canoe Financial LP acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 19,325 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,800,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. DV Equities LLC acquired a new position in VeriSign during the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its position in VeriSign by 429.2% in the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in VeriSign in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of VeriSign by 25.3% during the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Finally, Activest Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 788.0% during the fourth quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 222 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on VRSN. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of VeriSign from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $285.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $305.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research note on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, VeriSign presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $327.67.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN opened at $255.62 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $23.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.25 and a beta of 0.69. The business’s 50 day moving average is $281.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $256.27. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52-week low of $208.86 and a 52-week high of $312.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $428.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $424.50 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 49.95% and a negative return on equity of 39.98%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.10 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 19th were paid a dividend of $0.81 per share. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 19th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio is 35.80%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.47, for a total value of $981,651.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 439,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,690,172.33. The trade was a 0.75% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.02, for a total transaction of $1,355,100.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 35,195 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,538,548.90. This trade represents a 12.44% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 20,196 shares of company stock valued at $5,559,420 in the last ninety days. Corporate 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.