Legal & General Group Plc Acquires New Position in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 686,280 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $172,641,000. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.76% of VeriSign at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of VRSN. Groupe la Francaise grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Groupe la Francaise now owns 1,413 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $351,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 25.3% in the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC grew its position in VeriSign by 2.1% in the first quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 2,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $514,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the period. One Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in VeriSign by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. One Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,215 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $295,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Finally, AlphaCentric Advisors LLC grew its position in VeriSign by 6.1% in the first quarter. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC now owns 802 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $199,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on VRSN. Zacks Research upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $328.75.

VeriSign Stock Down 0.3%

VRSN opened at $292.99 on Thursday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $208.86 and a 52 week high of $312.48. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $273.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $265.69. The firm has a market cap of $26.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.78 and a beta of 0.70.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.02. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 39.20% and a net margin of 49.76%.The firm had revenue of $434.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $433.19 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.21 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.56 earnings per share for the current year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.81 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio is 35.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $292.35, for a total transaction of $146,175.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 34,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,100,984.85. This represents a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP John Calys sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.56, for a total transaction of $140,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 31,087 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,752,855.72. The trade was a 1.58% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 39,800 shares of company stock worth $11,020,624 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Company Profile

VeriSign, Inc (NASDAQ: VRSN) is an internet infrastructure company that operates critical components of the global Domain Name System (DNS) and provides cybersecurity-related services. The company is best known as the authoritative registry operator for the .com and .net top-level domains, maintaining the central databases and zone files that enable domain name resolution for millions of websites. VeriSign’s registry role is performed under contractual agreements with Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and involves high-availability, highly secure operations to support continuous internet connectivity.

In addition to its registry business, VeriSign offers a suite of services designed to protect and accelerate DNS and internet traffic for enterprises and service providers.