Equitable Trust Co. Has $1.45 Million Stock Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Equitable Trust Co. lowered its position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 12.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,690 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 807 shares during the quarter. Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $1,445,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Berkshire Hathaway Inc increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 13,271,457 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,746,661,000 after purchasing an additional 455,844 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,701,154 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $352,071,000 after purchasing an additional 35,326 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in VeriSign by 20.9% in the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,327,130 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $273,853,000 after acquiring an additional 229,311 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in VeriSign by 10.0% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,284,759 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $265,894,000 after acquiring an additional 116,833 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its position in VeriSign by 58.2% in the 4th quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,097,129 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $227,062,000 after acquiring an additional 403,760 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on VRSN shares. Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 12th.

VeriSign Trading Up 6.7%

VRSN opened at $305.79 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.71 billion, a PE ratio of 36.49 and a beta of 0.78. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $172.49 and a 1-year high of $308.00. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $282.03 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $254.94.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The information services provider reported $2.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.20 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $409.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $410.35 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 50.05% and a negative return on equity of 41.12%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.01 EPS.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th will be paid a $0.77 dividend. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.01%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 19th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.65%.

VeriSign declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, July 24th that allows the company to repurchase $1.11 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information services provider to buy up to 4.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO D James Bidzos sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.71, for a total value of $1,383,550.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 544,772 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $150,743,860.12. This trade represents a 0.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 40,004 shares of company stock valued at $11,278,592. 0.84% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.