Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Sells 9,268 Shares of VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. trimmed its position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 4.6% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 190,722 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 9,268 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $53,786,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in VeriSign during the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Addison Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign during the second quarter worth approximately $30,000. PenderFund Capital Management Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign during the second quarter worth approximately $40,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 40.5% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 243 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 1st quarter worth approximately $64,000. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on VRSN shares. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $351.00 to $367.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 26th. Robert W. Baird set a $380.00 target price on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Zacks Research downgraded shares of VeriSign from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 23rd. 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 research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of VeriSign from $325.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.00.

VeriSign Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $313.88 on Wednesday. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $208.86 and a fifty-two week high of $317.41. The firm has a market cap of $28.16 billion, a PE ratio of 32.95 and a beta of 0.66. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $296.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $272.01.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The information services provider reported $2.35 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.46 by ($0.11). VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 49.06%. The firm had revenue of $443.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $440.58 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.27 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.57 EPS for the current year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 24th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 17th will be issued a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 17th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.84%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, EVP Thomas Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.38, for a total value of $154,690.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 31,395 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,712,985.10. The trade was a 1.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.67, for a total transaction of $1,002,111.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 368,527 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $111,910,594.09. This trade represents a 0.89% 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 have sold a total of 42,556 shares of company stock valued at $12,527,236 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Company Profile

VeriSign, Inc (NASDAQ: VRSN) provides internet infrastructure services that support the global domain name system. The company operates the authoritative registry for the .com and .net top-level domains and provides registry services for certain other domains, helping maintain the databases that connect domain names with internet addresses.

The company’s services include domain name registry operations, domain name registration-related support for accredited registrars, and infrastructure designed to improve the availability, stability, and security of internet naming services.