337,859 Shares in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN Purchased by Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec

Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec bought a new position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 337,859 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $84,992,000. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec owned 0.37% of VeriSign at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. DV Equities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Addison Advisors LLC acquired a new position in VeriSign during the second quarter worth $30,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 25.3% in the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Activest Wealth Management increased its position 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 buying an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

VeriSign Stock Performance

VeriSign stock opened at $294.73 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $274.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $266.19. The company has a market capitalization of $26.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.97 and a beta of 0.70. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $208.86 and a fifty-two week 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 for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $434.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $433.19 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 39.20% and a net margin of 49.76%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.21 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on VRSN shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Wedbush lifted their target price 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. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, VeriSign presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $328.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.47, for a total transaction of $981,651.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 439,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $130,690,172.33. This trade represents a 0.75% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 39,800 shares of company stock valued at $11,020,624. Insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

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.