5,860 Shares in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN Acquired by Summit Global Investments

Summit Global Investments acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 5,860 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,474,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC raised its stake in VeriSign by 12.3% during the first quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,232 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $313,000 after purchasing an additional 135 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 104.5% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 4,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,047,000 after purchasing an additional 2,108 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 122.1% in the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 3,358 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $852,000 after purchasing an additional 1,846 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 9,346 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,373,000 after buying an additional 186 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on VRSN shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on VeriSign from $305.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Wedbush increased their price objective on VeriSign from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on VeriSign from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $328.75.

VeriSign Trading Down 1.0%

VRSN opened at $284.24 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $273.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $263.57. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $208.86 and a 12-month high of $312.48. The firm has a market cap of $25.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.83 and a beta of 0.70.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $434.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $433.19 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 39.20% and a net margin of 49.76%.VeriSign’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.21 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.56 earnings per share for the current year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

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

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, 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 in the company, valued at $130,690,172.33. This represents a 0.75% 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 Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $283.54, for a total transaction of $141,770.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 36,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,363,670.54. This represents a 1.35% decrease in their position. 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 33,200 shares of company stock valued at $9,142,891 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

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.