VeriSign Upgraded to Buy by Stock Analysts

On January 7, 2025, stock analysts at StockNews.com announced an upgrade for VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating, following a recent evaluation of the company's performance.

A few other equities research analysts have shared their insights on VeriSign. Robert W. Baird upgraded the stock from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating, also increasing the price target for the company from $200.00 to $250.00. This report was published on December 9, 2024. Citigroup also raised its price objective for VeriSign from $210.00 to $238.00, assigning a "buy" rating to the stock in their report from last Friday. Additionally, Baird R W changed its rating for VeriSign from a "hold" to a "strong-buy" rating on December 9, 2024.

Current Stock Performance

VeriSign's stock opened at $210.68 on Tuesday. The company's market capitalization stands at $20.25 billion, with a price-to-earnings (PE) ratio of 24.50 and a beta of 0.89. Over the past year, the stock recorded a low of $167.04 and a high of $212.10. Its 50-day moving average is $190.44, while the 200-day moving average is $184.66.

VeriSign reported its quarterly earnings on October 24, 2024. The company exceeded expectations by posting earnings of $2.07 per share (EPS), which was $0.06 higher than the forecasted EPS of $2.01. The revenue for the quarter was $390.60 million, slightly above analyst expectations of $390.19 million. The company also noted a negative return on equity of 45.59% and a net margin of 55.74%, with quarterly revenue up 3.8% year-over-year. Last year at the same time, VeriSign had an EPS of $1.83.

Insider Transactions

Recent insider trading activities include a sale by EVP Danny R. Mcpherson, who sold 2,092 shares on December 2, 2024, at an average price of $192.43, totaling approximately $402,563.56. Following this transaction, Mcpherson now holds 26,157 shares valued at about $5,033,391.51, marking a decrease of 7.41% in ownership. Another executive, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto, sold 1,228 shares on October 15, 2024, at an average price of $190.00, totaling around $233,320.00. After the sale, Indelicarto has 33,593 shares valued at roughly $6,382,670, a 3.53% decrease in ownership. Currently, 0.84% of the stock is held by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors and Hedge Funds

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have adjusted their positions in VeriSign. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its stake in the company by 19.2% in the second quarter and now owns 1,883 shares worth $335,000 following the purchase of 303 additional shares. Gallacher Capital Management LLC entered a new position in VeriSign during the same period with a value of about $204,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its holdings by 2.5%, acquiring an additional 225 shares to hold a total of 9,389 shares valued at $1,669,000. Prudential PLC boosted its holdings by 50.4%, now owning 69,563 shares valued at $12,368,000 after adding 23,306 shares. Choreo LLC also picked up a new stake worth approximately $319,000. Overall, institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the stock.

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc., along with its subsidiaries, offers domain name registry services and internet infrastructure, enabling navigation for well-known domain names globally. The company ensures the security, stability, and resiliency of internet infrastructure and services, including operating two of the thirteen internet root servers and providing authoritative resolution for the .com and .net domains, which are essential for global e-commerce.

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