Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. Acquires New Shares in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 3,110 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $869,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $62,226,000. Compass Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in VeriSign in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $17,800,000. Essex Financial Services Inc. lifted its stake in VeriSign by 27.0% in the 3rd quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 945 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $264,000 after purchasing an additional 201 shares during the last quarter. Syon Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 19.3% during the third quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 3,347 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $936,000 after buying an additional 542 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Axxcess Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 44.5% during the third quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 6,669 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,864,000 after buying an additional 2,054 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on VRSN shares. Zacks Research raised VeriSign from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on VeriSign from $270.00 to $271.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on VeriSign from $337.00 to $280.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $292.00.

VeriSign Trading Down 2.0%

Shares of VRSN opened at $211.49 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $239.54 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $254.58. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12 month low of $208.86 and a 12 month high of $310.60. The company has a market capitalization of $19.39 billion, a PE ratio of 24.01 and a beta of 0.75.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The information services provider reported $2.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.29 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $425.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $424.04 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 49.84% and a negative return on equity of 40.40%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.00 EPS.

VeriSign Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 19th will be issued a dividend of $0.81 per share. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 19th. This is a positive change from VeriSign’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.77. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.78%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 501 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.07, for a total transaction of $125,285.07. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 31,609 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,904,462.63. This trade represents a 1.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO D James Bidzos sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $244.59, for a total transaction of $1,222,950.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 434,099 shares in the company, valued at $106,176,274.41. This trade represents a 1.14% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 23,662 shares of company stock worth $5,799,697 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.84% 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.