Ed Lin

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has increased its overall stake in VeriSign, a provider of Internet domain-name registry services.

Berkshire Hathaway insurance unit Geico and pension plans of other Berkshire Hathaway businesses bought a total of 143,424 VeriSign shares from Dec. 20 through Tuesday for a total of $28.5 million, an average price of $199.05 each. Geico added 14,921 of the shares to lift its investment to 7,920,402 VeriSign shares, while the pensions bought 128,503 shares to boost their stake to 5,272,947 VeriSign shares.

Overall, Berkshire Hathaway now owns 13,193,349 VeriSign shares, according to a form Buffett's firm filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It remains the largest shareholder with a stake of more than 10%.

Berkshire Hathaway didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the stock purchases.

VeriSign stock has been flat so far in 2024, while the S&P 500 has surged 25%. Shares have badly underperformed the index in recent years as well. Since the end of 2019, VeriSign stock gained 6.6%, while the S&P 500 has soared 86%.

Berkshire Hathaway also bought more VeriSign stock earlier this month, along with shares of Occidental Petroleum and satellite-radio firm Sirius XM Holdings.

Inside Scoop is a regular Barron's feature covering stock transactions by corporate executives and board members -- so-called insiders -- as well as large shareholders, politicians, and other prominent figures. Due to their insider status, these investors are required to disclose stock trades with the Securities and Exchange Commission or other regulatory groups.

Write to Ed Lin at edward.lin@barrons.com and follow @BarronsEdLin.

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December 27, 2024 10:41 ET (15:41 GMT)

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