Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Increase Stake in VeriSign Again

Legendary investor Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and related entities, have disclosed in an SEC filing that they now control 12,985,000 shares of common stock of VeriSign, being 10.4% of all outstanding shares of the domain name registry for .COM and .NET.

According to 247wallst.com, Buffett/Berkshire Hathaway's ownership in Verisign has been increasing:

• As of March 31, 2013, it was 8.174 million shares. 
• As of December 31, 2013, it was 10.96 million shares. 
• As of March 31, 2014, it was 11,685,654 shares.

Obviously the purchase of additional shares in July is a vote of confidence in VeriSign and its management--Buffett is known to add shares to his holdings when he thinks a stock is undervalued. Apparently Warren Buffett does not consider the new gTLDs much of a threat to VeriSign's .COM business either!

Both Verisign and Berkshire Hathaway closed up Monday (August 4, 2014):

VRSN $54.55  +$1.35 (2.54%)   VeriSign, Inc. - NASDAQ

BRK.A $194305.00  +$5026.00 (2.66%)  /  BRK.B  $129.73  +$3.90  (3.10%)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc - NYSE

According to 247wallst.com, VeriSign's total market value is $6.7 billion which puts the Warren Buffett/Berkshire Hathaway 10.4% stake worth almost $700 million. Berkshire Hathaway’s total market value is now more than $300 billion, its public equity holdings are in excess of $100 billion, and as of June 30, it was holding $55.5 billion in cash.

more news links below (on mobile go to web version link below)

Follow @expvccom