Meritage Portfolio Management Raises Stock Position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN)

Meritage Portfolio Management raised its stake in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) by 7.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 36,900 shares of the information services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,486 shares during the period. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $7,600,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its position in VeriSign by 10.4% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 272,103 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $56,042,000 after buying an additional 25,639 shares during the last quarter. Duality Advisers LP lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 142.0% in the fourth quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 29,874 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $6,153,000 after acquiring an additional 17,529 shares during the period. NewEdge Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 15.8% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 72,544 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $14,941,000 after acquiring an additional 9,888 shares during the period. Seven Eight Capital LP lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 41.4% in the third quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP now owns 1,888 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $382,000 after acquiring an additional 553 shares during the period. Finally, Vontobel Holding Ltd. lifted its holdings in VeriSign by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 85,196 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $17,547,000 after acquiring an additional 8,710 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSN has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup cut their price target on VeriSign from $237.00 to $236.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price target on VeriSign from $215.00 to $200.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday.

VeriSign Stock Performance

VRSN stock traded down $6.36 during trading on Friday, hitting $176.32. The stock had a trading volume of 930,087 shares, compared to its average volume of 593,648. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $189.66 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $200.25. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $174.51 and a 1-year high of $229.72. The stock has a market cap of $17.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.71 and a beta of 0.88.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The information services provider reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.86 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $384.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $381.85 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 46.56% and a net margin of 54.74%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.70 EPS.

Insider Buying and Selling at VeriSign

In other news, COO Todd B. Strubbe sold 9,423 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.21, for a total transaction of $1,820,617.83. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 111,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,552,768.71. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, COO Todd B. Strubbe sold 9,423 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.21, for a total transaction of $1,820,617.83. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 111,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,552,768.71. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 614 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total value of $116,660.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 42,569 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,088,110. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,877 shares of company stock worth $2,878,864 in the last 90 days. 0.94% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.