Parcion Private Wealth LLC Has $566,000 Position in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Parcion Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 13.5% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,961 shares of the information services provider’s stock after buying an additional 233 shares during the quarter. Parcion Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $566,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,514,290 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,669,263,000 after purchasing an additional 119,555 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 75.5% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,329,640 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $586,417,000 after purchasing an additional 1,002,510 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 71.3% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 1,202,278 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $307,098,000 after purchasing an additional 500,223 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 5.5% in the 1st 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 purchasing an additional 60,293 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,024,095 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $259,987,000 after purchasing an additional 49,478 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on VRSN. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of VeriSign from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have issued a Buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $277.50.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In related news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.15, for a total transaction of $1,320,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 508,772 shares in the company, valued at $134,392,123.80. This trade represents a 0.97% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 38,706 shares of company stock worth $10,591,676. 0.84% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

VeriSign Price Performance

VeriSign stock opened at $251.94 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $23.53 billion, a PE ratio of 30.06 and a beta of 0.79. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $175.62 and a one year high of $310.60. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $274.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $274.28.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted 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. The business had revenue of $409.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $410.35 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 40.87% and a net margin of 50.05%.VeriSign’s revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.01 EPS.

VeriSign declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, July 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.11 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the information services provider to reacquire up to 4.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.