Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec Makes New Investment in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 337,859 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $84,992,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in VeriSign in the second quarter valued at $2,116,154,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in VeriSign in the 4th quarter worth about $312,900,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in VeriSign in the 2nd quarter worth about $172,641,000. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in VeriSign in the 4th quarter worth about $149,686,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG purchased a new stake in VeriSign in the 2nd quarter valued at about $145,362,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at VeriSign

In related news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $291.16, for a total value of $960,828.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 398,089 shares in the company, valued at approximately $115,907,593.24. This trade represents a 0.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 500 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $292.35, for a total transaction of $146,175.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 34,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,100,984.85. This trade represents a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 39,800 shares of company stock worth $11,020,624. 0.56% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

VeriSign Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of VeriSign stock opened at $294.73 on Friday. VeriSign, Inc. has a twelve month low of $208.86 and a twelve month high of $312.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.97 and a beta of 0.70. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $274.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $266.19.

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

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were issued a dividend of $0.81 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. VeriSign’s payout ratio is presently 35.14%.

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.