Ballentine Partners LLC Purchases New Shares in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 810 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $234,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Accurate Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in VeriSign in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,595,000. Fifth Third Bancorp increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 15.4% during the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 4,003 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,156,000 after purchasing an additional 533 shares during the last quarter. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,923,000. Gries Financial LLC increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Gries Financial LLC now owns 1,745 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $504,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 20.7% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,315 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $957,000 after purchasing an additional 569 shares during the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on VeriSign from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have issued a Buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, VeriSign presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.50.

VeriSign Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of NASDAQ VRSN opened at $284.31 on Tuesday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $175.62 and a 52 week high of $310.60. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $277.84 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $272.33. The company has a market cap of $26.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.93 and a beta of 0.79.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The information services provider reported $2.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $0.01. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 40.87% and a net margin of 50.05%.The business had revenue of $409.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $410.35 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.01 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. VeriSign has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were given a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 19th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.75%.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Timothy Tomlinson sold 700 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.00, for a total transaction of $189,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 15,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,126,680. This trade represents a 4.38% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 501 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.28, for a total value of $141,422.28. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 35,191 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,933,715.48. This trade represents a 1.40% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 45,205 shares of company stock worth $12,587,894. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

VeriSign 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.