Wedbush Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) Stock

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) had its price objective lifted by equities research analysts at Wedbush from $324.00 to $341.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the information services provider’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 18.29% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on VRSN. Zacks Research raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $333.00.

VeriSign Stock Down 1.3%

Shares of VeriSign stock opened at $288.28 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $26.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.27 and a beta of 0.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $275.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $267.17. VeriSign has a 52-week low of $208.86 and a 52-week high of $312.48.

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

Insider Activity

In other VeriSign news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $266.09, for a total transaction of $878,097.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 422,839 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $112,513,229.51. This trade represents a 0.77% decrease in their position. The sale 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. Insiders have sold a total of 36,000 shares of company stock worth $9,892,248 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of VeriSign

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Corient Private Wealth LP lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 2,587.2% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 78,951 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,861,000 after acquiring an additional 76,013 shares during the period. Groupe la Francaise grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Groupe la Francaise now owns 1,481 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $373,000 after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $67,671,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 30,008.2% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 34,563,589 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,694,816,000 after purchasing an additional 34,448,791 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 8.1% during the 2nd quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 2,021 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $546,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Company 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.