VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Purchases Shares of 269,004 VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 269,004 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $67,671,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. DV Equities LLC acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter valued at $28,000. Addison Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its stake in VeriSign by 429.2% in the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. PenderFund Capital Management Ltd. bought a new stake in VeriSign in the second quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in VeriSign by 25.3% during the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSN has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st. Zacks Research raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, VeriSign currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $333.00.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VeriSign stock opened at $292.08 on Monday. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $208.86 and a one year high of $312.48. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $279.03 and its 200-day moving average is $269.23. The firm has a market cap of $26.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.68 and a beta of 0.70.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $434.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $433.19 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 49.76% and a negative return on equity of 39.20%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.21 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.57 EPS for the current year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were issued a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 19th. VeriSign’s payout ratio is currently 35.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling at VeriSign

In related news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.78, for a total value of $145,390.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 33,395 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,710,598.10. This trade represents a 1.48% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the company’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 394,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $114,959,300.43. The trade was a 0.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 39,800 shares of company stock worth $10,998,235 over the last 90 days. 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.