849 Shares in VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN Bought by Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management bought a new position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 849 shares of the information services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $245,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. bought a new position in VeriSign in the 2nd quarter worth $275,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in VeriSign by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 25,284 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $7,302,000 after acquiring an additional 478 shares in the last quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC grew its stake in VeriSign by 8.7% during the 2nd quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 1,684 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $486,000 after buying an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG lifted its position in VeriSign by 127.3% during the 2nd quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG now owns 14,989 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,329,000 after acquiring an additional 8,396 shares during the period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 161.4% in the second quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 860,068 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $248,388,000 after acquiring an additional 531,041 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VRSN. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on VeriSign from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 1st. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have assigned a Buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $277.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Timothy Tomlinson sold 700 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.00, for a total transaction of $189,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 15,284 shares in the company, valued at $4,126,680. The trade was a 4.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 501 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.28, for a total value of $141,422.28. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 35,191 shares in the company, valued at $9,933,715.48. This trade represents a 1.40% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 39,704 shares of company stock valued at $11,019,957 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.84% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of VeriSign stock opened at $270.78 on Tuesday. VeriSign, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $175.62 and a fifty-two week high of $310.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.31 and a beta of 0.79. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $275.80 and a 200 day moving average of $273.49.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The information services provider reported $2.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.20 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $409.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $410.35 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 40.87% and a net margin of 50.05%.The company’s revenue was up 5.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $2.01 EPS. VeriSign has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were given a dividend of $0.77 per share. This represents a $3.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 19th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.75%.

VeriSign announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, July 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.11 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the information services provider to repurchase up to 4.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

About VeriSign

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.