Western Wealth Management LLC Buys Shares of 2,036 VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Western Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 2,036 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $512,000.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. DV Equities LLC bought a new position in VeriSign during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Addison Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of VeriSign in the second quarter worth $30,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 429.2% in the third quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 25.3% in the first 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Activest Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of VeriSign by 788.0% during the 4th 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at VeriSign

In other VeriSign news, EVP John Calys sold 500 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.56, for a total transaction of $140,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 31,087 shares in the company, valued at $8,752,855.72. The trade was a 1.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 500 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $292.35, for a total transaction of $146,175.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 34,551 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,100,984.85. The trade was a 1.43% 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 have sold 36,500 shares of company stock valued at $10,059,796 over the last three months. 0.56% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Wedbush raised their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective 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, Zacks Research raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $328.75.

VeriSign Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSN opened at $293.75 on Wednesday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52-week low of $208.86 and a 52-week high of $312.48. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $273.35 and a 200 day moving average of $265.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.86 and a beta of 0.70.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.02. The business 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.21 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be given a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio is 35.14%.

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.