OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp Acquires New Holdings in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp bought a new position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 16,114 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,000.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. DV Equities LLC acquired a new stake in VeriSign in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Addison Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 429.2% in the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 25.3% in the 1st 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 during the period. Finally, Activest Wealth Management boosted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 788.0% in the fourth quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 222 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $54,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN opened at $293.75 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $273.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $265.33. The stock has a market cap of $26.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.86 and a beta of 0.70. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $208.86 and a one year high of $312.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.21 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.56 earnings per share for the current year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 27th. Shareholders 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 payout ratio is 35.14%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Wedbush upped their price objective on VeriSign from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Zacks Research raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $328.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at VeriSign

In other news, EVP John Calys sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.56, for a total value of $140,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 31,087 shares in the company, valued at $8,752,855.72. This represents a 1.58% 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 Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $292.35, for a total value of $146,175.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 34,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,100,984.85. This trade represents a 1.43% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 36,500 shares of company stock valued at $10,059,796 in the last three months. 0.56% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.