HB Wealth Management LLC Increases Position in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

HB Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 48.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,425 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,776 shares during the period. HB Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $1,365,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Saudi Central Bank grew its position in VeriSign by 87.6% during the second quarter. Saudi Central Bank now owns 5,777 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,453,000 after buying an additional 2,697 shares during the period. Angeles Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 23.7% during the 2nd quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,008 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $254,000 after acquiring an additional 193 shares during the period. AlphaGrep UK Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $807,000. Strive Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Strive Financial Group LLC now owns 1,009 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $254,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Syon Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 23.4% during the 2nd quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 4,951 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,245,000 after acquiring an additional 938 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on VRSN shares. Zacks Research raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Wedbush upped their target price on VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, VeriSign currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $333.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.94, for a total value of $828,102.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 426,139 shares in the company, valued at approximately $106,935,320.66. This represents a 0.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 39,800 shares of company stock valued at $11,001,408. Insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $288.85 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $281.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $271.22. The stock has a market cap of $26.08 billion, a PE ratio of 31.33 and a beta of 0.70. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $208.86 and a one year high of $312.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $434.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $433.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.21 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 given a dividend of $0.81 per share. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.14%.

VeriSign Company Profile

VeriSign, Inc (NASDAQ: VRSN) is a global provider of internet infrastructure and domain name registry services. The company operates the authoritative registry for the .com and .net top-level domains, maintaining the systems that support the registration and resolution of millions of internet addresses worldwide.

VeriSign’s services include domain registry operations, Domain Name System (DNS) services, DNS security and stability solutions, and related internet infrastructure. Its systems help domain name registrars, businesses, governments and internet users access websites and online services reliably.