9,964 Shares in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN Acquired by Cibc World Market Inc.

Cibc World Market Inc. bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 9,964 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,507,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in VRSN. DV Equities LLC bought a new position in shares of VeriSign in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Addison Advisors LLC bought a new stake in VeriSign in the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its stake in VeriSign by 429.2% in the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 127 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 25.3% during 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. Finally, Activest Wealth Management grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 788.0% during the fourth quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 222 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $54,000 after purchasing an additional 197 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In other VeriSign news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $297.47, for a total transaction of $981,651.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 439,339 shares in the company, valued at $130,690,172.33. This trade represents a 0.75% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 39,800 shares of company stock worth $11,020,624 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $292.99 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $273.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $265.69. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52-week low of $208.86 and a 52-week high of $312.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.78 and a beta of 0.70.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced 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 negative return on equity of 39.20% and a net margin of 49.76%.The company had revenue of $434.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $433.19 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.21 EPS. VeriSign’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.56 EPS for the current year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be given a dividend of $0.81 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is 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%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSN has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Wedbush upped their target price on shares of VeriSign from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $328.75.

VeriSign Profile

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.