National Pension Service Purchases 155,179 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

National Pension Service raised its position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 971.9% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 171,145 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 155,179 shares during the period. National Pension Service’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $43,053,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. DV Equities LLC purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 4th quarter worth approximately $28,000. Addison Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in VeriSign during the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. PenderFund Capital Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in VeriSign in the second quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in VeriSign by 25.3% in 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. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Wedbush raised their price objective on VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. Zacks Research upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $333.00.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In related news, EVP John Calys sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.56, for a total value of $140,780.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 31,087 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,752,855.72. This represents a 1.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.40, for a total transaction of $938,520.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 391,627 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $111,378,718.80. This represents a 0.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 have sold a total of 39,800 shares of company stock worth $11,001,408 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $292.71 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.75 and a beta of 0.70. The business has a fifty day moving average of $282.43 and a 200 day moving average of $271.37. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1 year low of $208.86 and a 1 year high of $312.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $434.60 million for 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%.The company’s quarterly 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 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

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

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc (NASDAQ: VRSN) is a global provider of internet infrastructure and domain name registry services. The company operates the authoritative registry for the .com and .net top-level domains, maintaining the systems that support the registration and resolution of millions of internet addresses worldwide.

VeriSign’s services include domain registry operations, Domain Name System (DNS) services, DNS security and stability solutions, and related internet infrastructure. Its systems help domain name registrars, businesses, governments and internet users access websites and online services reliably.