Bank of America Corp DE Lowers Holdings in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Bank of America Corp DE decreased its holdings in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 20.0% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 339,853 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 84,776 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $84,406,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp raised its holdings in VeriSign by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,253,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,189,285,000 after buying an additional 321,737 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in VeriSign by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,020,169 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $976,700,000 after buying an additional 496,674 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in VeriSign by 1.4% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 2,818,151 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $699,916,000 after buying an additional 38,800 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in VeriSign by 19.8% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,491,035 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $362,247,000 after buying an additional 246,887 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the fourth quarter valued at about $312,900,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other VeriSign news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.54, for a total transaction of $978,582.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 409,639 shares in the company, valued at $121,474,349.06. This represents a 0.80% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP John Calys sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.56, for a total transaction of $140,780.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 31,087 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,752,855.72. This trade represents a 1.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 32,700 shares of company stock valued at $8,996,716 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of VeriSign from $305.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of VeriSign from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. One 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 MarketBeat.com, VeriSign presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $328.75.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VeriSign stock opened at $294.56 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.95 and a beta of 0.70. The business has a 50-day moving average of $274.16 and a 200 day moving average of $262.29. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12 month low of $208.86 and a 12 month high of $312.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.02. The company 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.21 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.56 earnings per share for the current year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.81 per share. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 19th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.14%.

About VeriSign

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.