Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Makes New Investment in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 25,704 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,466,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Groupe la Francaise lifted its holdings 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 worth $351,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in VeriSign by 25.3% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC grew its stake in VeriSign by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 2,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $514,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC increased 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 buying an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, Basecamp Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in VeriSign by 19.0% in the first quarter. Basecamp Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 295 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $73,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

VeriSign Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $288.37 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $26.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.28 and a beta of 0.70. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1 year low of $208.86 and a 1 year high of $312.48. The business has a fifty day moving average of $276.70 and a 200-day moving average of $267.69.

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

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.81 per share. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $292.35, for a total transaction of $146,175.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 34,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,100,984.85. This trade represents a 1.43% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO D James Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction 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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 36,000 shares of company stock worth $9,892,248 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VRSN has been the subject of several recent research reports. Zacks Research upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Wedbush raised their price target on shares of VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $333.00.

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.