Renaissance Technologies LLC recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Verisign Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 1.24% to 3.09 million shares with purchase of 37900.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 3.03% valued currently at $656.65 million. In addition, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings by 63773.0 to 2.36 million shares.
With over 0.44 million Verisign Inc. (VRSN) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $205.96 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $90.75 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -8.86% and its price on 12/29/23 lost nearly -0.16%. Currently, there are 105.30M common shares owned by the public and among those 101.18M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 5 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for VRSN have a consensus price objective of $231.87. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $240.60 and a low of $215.00. The average price target is 11.17% above its recent price level and an upside to the estimated low will see the stock gain 4.2% over that period. But an upside of 14.4% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $240.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 268 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 18 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 100,224 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 250 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 242,624 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Verisign Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 2.75 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $582.72 million. The company bought an additional 6956.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 2.69% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 9673.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 2.17 million shares valued at over $459.63 million and representing 2.12% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund bought 5442.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 1.99 million shares at a value of $422.51 million. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 1.95% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Verisign Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) opened at $206.66, up $0.38 from a prior closing price of $206.28. However, the script later moved the day high at 206.92, down -0.16%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 0.73% and 1.69% over the past three months. VRSN shares are trading 0.25% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 2.40% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $188.44 and touched a high of $229.72 over the same period. VRSN has an average intraday trading volume of 575.82K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -2.45%, -1.20%, and -2.55% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Verisign Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) shares accounts for 92.93% of the company’s 105.30M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 45.08%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 48.40% and 17.59% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $21.03B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.93. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 29.37, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $7.01. The company has a PEG of 3.67 and a Quick Ratio of 0.86. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.06% over the week and 1.74% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Verisign Inc. (VRSN) will achieve an EPS of $1.87 for the current quarter, $1.9 for the next quarter and $8.22 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.83 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.9. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.7 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 15.10%, and 11.41% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 8.00% over the next five years, compared to 11.14% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 5 brokerage firm advisors rate Verisign Inc. (VRSN) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.40. Specifically, 1 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 3 of the 5 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the VRSN, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. Robert W. Baird stated their Neutral rating for the stock in a research note on July 11, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $265-$245.
