Oxbow Advisors LLC Increases Stock Position in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Oxbow Advisors LLC grew its position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 14,747 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 196 shares during the period. Oxbow Advisors LLC’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $4,259,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Empirical Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 33.5% in the second quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC now owns 3,086 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $891,000 after purchasing an additional 775 shares during the last quarter. S Bank Fund Management Ltd purchased a new stake in VeriSign during the second quarter worth about $217,000. Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super increased its holdings in VeriSign by 64.8% during the second quarter. Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super now owns 278,808 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $75,177,000 after buying an additional 109,651 shares during the last quarter. Alta Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in VeriSign by 0.4% during the second quarter. Alta Capital Management LLC now owns 68,072 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $19,659,000 after buying an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its holdings in VeriSign by 182.6% during the second quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 320,782 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $92,642,000 after buying an additional 207,286 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSN has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of VeriSign from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 1st. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have assigned a Buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, VeriSign currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.50.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In other VeriSign news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 5,000 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.15, for a total transaction of $1,320,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 508,772 shares in the company, valued at $134,392,123.80. The trade was a 0.97% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 38,706 shares of company stock valued at $10,591,676 in the last three months. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

VeriSign Trading Down 2.2%

VRSN stock opened at $259.79 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $274.86 and a 200-day moving average of $273.97. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12 month low of $175.62 and a 12 month high of $310.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.00 and a beta of 0.79.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The information services provider reported $2.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.20 by $0.01. VeriSign had a net margin of 50.05% and a negative return on equity of 40.87%. The company had revenue of $409.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $410.35 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.01 earnings per share. VeriSign’s revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. VeriSign has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were given a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 19th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.75%.

VeriSign declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Thursday, July 24th that allows the company to buyback $1.11 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the information services provider to purchase up to 4.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

VeriSign Profile

VeriSign, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides domain name registry services and internet infrastructure that enables internet navigation for various recognized domain names worldwide. The company enables the security, stability, and resiliency of internet infrastructure and services, including providing root zone maintainer services, operating two of thirteen internet root servers; and offering registration services and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net domains, which supports global e-commerce.