VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) Stock Bumped Down to “Hold” by Zacks Research

Zacks Research cut shares of VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Wednesday,Zacks reports.

VRSN has been the topic of several other reports. Wedbush raised their target price on VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a report on Monday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $333.00.

VeriSign Trading Down 0.5%

VRSN stock opened at $291.88 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $287.91 and its 200 day simple moving average is $276.20. VeriSign has a 12-month low of $208.86 and a 12-month high of $312.48. The firm has a market cap of $26.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.66 and a beta of 0.70.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $434.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $433.19 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 39.20% and a net margin of 49.76%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.21 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that VeriSign will post 9.59 EPS for the current fiscal year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.74, for a total transaction of $1,005,642.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 385,027 shares in the company, valued at approximately $117,333,127.98. This trade represents a 0.85% 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. Also, EVP Thomas Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.16, for a total transaction of $144,580.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 32,895 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,511,918.20. This represents a 1.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 39,800 shares of company stock valued at $11,260,689 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Groupe la Francaise grew its holdings in VeriSign by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. Groupe la Francaise now owns 1,413 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $351,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC grew its stake in VeriSign by 2.1% in the first quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 2,069 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $514,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Strive Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in VeriSign by 4.3% in the second quarter. Strive Financial Group LLC now owns 1,009 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $254,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC now owns 802 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $199,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Basecamp Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 19.0% during the 1st quarter. Basecamp Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 295 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $73,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

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.