Blair William & Co. IL Takes $232,000 Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Blair William & Co. IL bought a new position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 914 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $232,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of VRSN. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in VeriSign by 35.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,746 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $697,000 after acquiring an additional 721 shares during the last quarter. Cache Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign during the 4th quarter worth about $685,000. Berkshire Hathaway Inc grew its holdings in VeriSign by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 13,271,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,746,661,000 after purchasing an additional 455,844 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in VeriSign by 358.9% in the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 70,017 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $17,775,000 after purchasing an additional 54,759 shares during the period. Finally, OMNI 360 Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in VeriSign in the first quarter worth about $329,000. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on VRSN. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on VeriSign from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th.

VeriSign Price Performance

VeriSign stock opened at $263.02 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $24.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.39 and a beta of 0.78. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $281.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $260.51. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1 year low of $172.49 and a 1 year high of $310.60.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The information services provider reported $2.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.20 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $409.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $410.35 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 40.87% and a net margin of 50.05%. VeriSign’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.01 earnings per share.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.77 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.75%.

VeriSign declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, July 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.11 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information services provider to repurchase up to 4.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 501 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.50, for a total value of $135,019.50. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 37,268 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,043,726. This represents a 1.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO D James Bidzos sold 2,000 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.35, for a total transaction of $562,700.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 515,772 shares in the company, valued at approximately $145,112,452.20. The trade was a 0.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 39,505 shares of company stock valued at $11,130,549 over the last 90 days. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About VeriSign

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.