VeriSign, Inc. $VRSN Stock: North Dakota State Investment Board Cuts Stake

01 Nov 2026, 10:25 by Kim Johansen · The Markets Daily

North Dakota State Investment Board trimmed its position in shares of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN – Free Report) by 51.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 2,498 shares of the information services provider’s stock after selling 2,670 shares during the period. North Dakota State Investment Board’s holdings in VeriSign were worth $704,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of VRSN. Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought a new position in VeriSign in the 2nd quarter worth about $2,261,494,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,116,154,000. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 1.8% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,150,727 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,044,157,000 after buying an additional 73,583 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 1.4% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 2,818,151 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $699,916,000 after buying an additional 38,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP raised its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 48.5% during the first quarter. Hawk Ridge Capital Management LP now owns 915,012 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $227,252,000 after buying an additional 298,895 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.09, for a total transaction of $960,597.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 394,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $114,959,300.43. The trade was a 0.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 45,856 shares of company stock worth $13,497,228 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.56% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSN opened at $307.21 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $295.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $271.38. The firm has a market cap of $27.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.03 and a beta of 0.69. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1 year low of $208.86 and a 1 year high of $312.78.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The information services provider reported $2.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.46 by ($0.11). VeriSign had a net margin of 49.06% and a negative return on equity of 38.40%. The firm had revenue of $443.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $440.58 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.27 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.81 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 17th. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.84%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on VRSN shares. Wedbush boosted their price objective on VeriSign from $351.00 to $367.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Weiss Ratings raised VeriSign from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Monday, October 12th. Zacks Research cut VeriSign from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $380.00 target price on VeriSign in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, VeriSign currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $352.00.

Check Out Our Latest Report on VeriSign

VeriSign Company Profile

(Free Report)

VeriSign, Inc (NASDAQ: VRSN) provides internet infrastructure services that support the global domain name system. The company operates the authoritative registry for the .com and .net top-level domains and provides registry services for certain other domains, helping maintain the databases that connect domain names with internet addresses.