Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Makes New Investment in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 56,537 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $14,222,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in VRSN. DV Equities LLC bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Addison Advisors LLC bought a new position in VeriSign in the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 429.2% in the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its position in VeriSign by 25.3% in the first 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 increased its position in VeriSign by 788.0% in the fourth quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 222 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $54,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on VRSN. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Wedbush boosted their price target on shares of VeriSign from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note 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 issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, VeriSign currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $328.75.

VeriSign Stock Down 1.0%

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $291.93 on Friday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $208.86 and a 12-month high of $312.48. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $275.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $266.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.66 and a beta of 0.70.

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

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $297.47, for a total value of $981,651.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 439,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $130,690,172.33. This represents a 0.75% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders sold 39,800 shares of company stock worth $11,020,624. 0.56% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

VeriSign 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.