Castleark Management LLC Takes $802,000 Position in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Castleark Management LLC bought a new position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 3,190 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $802,000.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of VRSN. Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its position in VeriSign by 25.3% in the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC lifted its position in VeriSign by 12.3% during the 1st quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,232 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $313,000 after buying an additional 135 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its holdings in VeriSign by 104.5% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 4,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,047,000 after acquiring an additional 2,108 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp grew its holdings in VeriSign by 122.1% during the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 3,358 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $852,000 after acquiring an additional 1,846 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in VeriSign by 2.0% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 9,346 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,373,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

VeriSign Trading Down 0.3%

VRSN opened at $292.99 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $273.92 and its 200 day simple moving average is $265.69. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $208.86 and a 1-year high of $312.48. The stock has a market cap of $26.46 billion, a PE ratio of 31.78 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 the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.02. VeriSign had a net margin of 49.76% and a negative return on equity of 39.20%. The firm had revenue of $434.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $433.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.21 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.56 earnings per share for the current year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be paid a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. VeriSign’s payout ratio is 35.14%.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In other VeriSign news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the executive vice president owned 34,551 shares in the company, valued at $10,100,984.85. This trade represents a 1.43% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP John Calys sold 500 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.56, for a total value of $140,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 31,087 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,752,855.72. This represents a 1.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 39,800 shares of company stock worth $11,020,624. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

About VeriSign

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.