Legal & General Group Plc Has $174.62 Million Position in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN

Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 6.4% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 718,734 shares of the information services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 43,126 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $174,616,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Strategy Asset Managers LLC bought a new stake in VeriSign in the third quarter valued at approximately $654,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 11.5% in the third quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 357,611 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $99,977,000 after acquiring an additional 36,829 shares during the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 159.6% in the fourth quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 9,150 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $2,223,000 after acquiring an additional 5,626 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 9.6% in the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 27,719 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,749,000 after acquiring an additional 2,435 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. bought a new stake in VeriSign in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,647,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other VeriSign news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.02, for a total transaction of $1,355,100.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 35,195 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,538,548.90. This represents a 12.44% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 498 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.78, for a total value of $115,426.44. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 40,028 shares in the company, valued at $9,277,689.84. The trade was a 1.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 6,826 shares of company stock worth $1,821,354 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Stock Performance

VeriSign stock opened at $295.65 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $26.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.67 and a beta of 0.68. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52-week low of $208.86 and a 52-week high of $312.48. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $272.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $252.28.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $428.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $424.50 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 39.98% and a net margin of 49.95%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.10 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.46 EPS for the current year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 19th were issued a dividend of $0.81 per share. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 19th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.80%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSN has been the topic of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on VeriSign from $305.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Zacks Research upgraded VeriSign from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. Weiss Ratings upgraded VeriSign from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on VeriSign from $273.00 to $278.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on VeriSign from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $317.67.

VeriSign Company 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.