Freestone Grove Partners LP Takes Position in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 4,655 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,171,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. DV Equities LLC bought a new position in shares of VeriSign in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Addison Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the second quarter valued at $30,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 429.2% in the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in VeriSign by 25.3% in the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. Finally, Activest Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 788.0% during the fourth quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 222 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

VeriSign Price Performance

Shares of VRSN opened at $291.93 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $26.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.66 and a beta of 0.70. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $208.86 and a one year high of $312.48. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $275.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $266.37.

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

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were issued a dividend of $0.81 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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 currently 35.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP John Calys sold 500 shares of the company’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 transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 31,087 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,752,855.72. This represents a 1.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO D James Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $291.16, for a total transaction of $960,828.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 398,089 shares in the company, valued at $115,907,593.24. This trade represents a 0.82% 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. Insiders have sold a total of 39,800 shares of company stock valued at $11,020,624 in the last 90 days. 0.56% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.