Bank of Montreal Can Acquires 73,218 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 86.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 157,571 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 73,218 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can owned approximately 0.16% of VeriSign worth $28,279,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VRSN. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP raised its stake in VeriSign by 5.8% during the second quarter. Liontrust Investment Partners LLP now owns 881,366 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $156,707,000 after acquiring an additional 48,344 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 793,507 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $150,376,000 after purchasing an additional 49,967 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in VeriSign by 2.6% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 660,191 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $117,382,000 after buying an additional 17,018 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 0.6% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 652,346 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $115,987,000 after buying an additional 3,684 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in shares of VeriSign by 38.9% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 546,308 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $103,531,000 after acquiring an additional 153,035 shares during the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In other VeriSign news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 3,684 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total transaction of $699,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 37,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,177,060. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.84% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

VeriSign Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $190.64 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.42 and a beta of 0.90. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $181.02 and its 200-day moving average is $180.19. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1 year low of $167.04 and a 1 year high of $220.91.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The information services provider reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.93 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $387.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $385.80 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 46.63% and a net margin of 55.40%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.79 EPS.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on VRSN shares. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Thursday, June 27th. StockNews.com lowered VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, June 16th.

VeriSign Company Profile

VeriSign, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides domain name registry services and internet infrastructure that enables internet navigation for various recognized domain names worldwide. The company enables the security, stability, and resiliency of internet infrastructure and services, including providing root zone maintainer services, operating two of thirteen internet root servers; and offering registration services and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net domains, which supports global e-commerce.