VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Invests $124.07 Million in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 429,591 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $124,066,000. VeriSign accounts for approximately 0.9% of VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al’s portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 1st quarter valued at about $641,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 118.3% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 220,285 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $55,924,000 after purchasing an additional 119,368 shares in the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC purchased a new position in VeriSign in the first quarter valued at approximately $508,000. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL purchased a new position in VeriSign in the first quarter valued at approximately $351,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in VeriSign by 35.6% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,746 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $697,000 after purchasing an additional 721 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on VRSN. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of VeriSign from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 1st. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have given a Buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $277.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VeriSign news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 508,772 shares in the company, valued at approximately $134,392,123.80. This represents a 0.97% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 38,706 shares of company stock valued at $10,591,676. Company insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of VRSN opened at $264.79 on Friday. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $175.62 and a fifty-two week high of $310.60. The company has a market capitalization of $24.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.60 and a beta of 0.79. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $274.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $274.17.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 24th. The information services provider reported $2.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $0.01. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 40.87% and a net margin of 50.05%.The firm had revenue of $409.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $410.35 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.01 EPS. The firm’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. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 19th were given a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a 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 initiated a stock repurchase program on Thursday, July 24th that permits the company to buyback $1.11 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the information services provider to purchase up to 4.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

VeriSign Company 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.