VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN Stake Boosted by Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc.

Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 137.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 12,327 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,130 shares during the quarter. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $3,476,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of VRSN. Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign in the second quarter worth about $2,261,494,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,116,154,000. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,150,727 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,044,157,000 after acquiring an additional 73,583 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 2,818,151 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $699,916,000 after acquiring an additional 38,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 48.5% in the 1st quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 915,012 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $227,252,000 after acquiring an additional 298,895 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

VeriSign Price Performance

NASDAQ:VRSN traded up $1.12 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $294.22. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,731,867 shares, compared to its average volume of 815,143. The company has a market cap of $26.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.91 and a beta of 0.69. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $208.86 and a one year high of $312.48. The business’s 50-day moving average is $290.18 and its 200-day moving average is $279.26.

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

VeriSign Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.20, for a total value of $927,960.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 412,939 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $116,118,446.80. This trade represents a 0.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 39,800 shares of company stock worth $11,450,078 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Zacks Research lowered shares of VeriSign from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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. Wedbush increased 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. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Monday, September 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $333.00.

VeriSign Profile

VeriSign, Inc (NASDAQ:VRSN) provides critical internet infrastructure and domain name registry services. The company operates the authoritative registries for the .com and .net top-level domains and supports the security, stability and availability of these domains worldwide. VeriSign also operates the .name and .cc registries and provides backend registry services for additional top-level domains.

In addition to registry operations, VeriSign offers domain name system (DNS) services designed to help organizations maintain reliable online access.