Ackerman Capital Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 711 VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Ackerman Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 711 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $205,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in VeriSign by 1.2% during the first 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 in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 75.5% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,329,640 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $586,417,000 after acquiring an additional 1,002,510 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in VeriSign by 71.3% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 1,202,278 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $307,098,000 after buying an additional 500,223 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 5.5% during the first 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 buying an additional 60,293 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 5.1% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,024,095 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $259,987,000 after buying an additional 49,478 shares during the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

VeriSign Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of VRSN opened at $260.82 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $275.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $273.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.12 and a beta of 0.79. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $175.62 and a 12-month high of $310.60.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The information services provider reported $2.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $0.01. The firm 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%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.01 earnings per share. VeriSign has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 19th were issued a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 19th. VeriSign’s payout ratio is presently 36.75%.

VeriSign declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, July 24th that permits the company to repurchase $1.11 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the information services provider to purchase up to 4.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In related news, Director Timothy Tomlinson sold 700 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.00, for a total value of $189,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 15,284 shares in the company, valued at $4,126,680. The trade was a 4.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO D James Bidzos sold 2,000 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $288.48, for a total value of $576,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 476,439 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $137,443,122.72. The trade was a 0.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 38,205 shares of company stock worth $10,577,083 over the last three months. 0.84% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About VeriSign

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.