Poinciana Advisors Group LLC Raises Stock Position in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Poinciana Advisors Group LLC raised its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 19.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,429 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 235 shares during the period. Poinciana Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $413,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in VeriSign by 1.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,514,290 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,669,263,000 after buying an additional 119,555 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of VeriSign by 75.5% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,329,640 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $586,417,000 after acquiring an additional 1,002,510 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in shares of VeriSign by 71.3% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 1,202,278 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $307,098,000 after acquiring an additional 500,223 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of VeriSign by 5.5% during the first quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,157,422 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $293,835,000 after acquiring an additional 60,293 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in VeriSign by 5.1% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,024,095 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $259,987,000 after buying an additional 49,478 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Price Performance

VeriSign stock opened at $284.31 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $277.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $272.33. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $175.62 and a 1-year high of $310.60. The stock has a market cap of $26.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.93 and a beta of 0.79.

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

VeriSign Announces Dividend

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

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

In other news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 5,000 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.43, for a total value of $1,342,150.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 498,304 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $133,759,742.72. The trade was a 0.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 45,205 shares of company stock worth $12,587,894. Company insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

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.