Verisign Falls after Buffett’s Berkshire sold $1.23 billion in stock

Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) – Verisign’s shares fell Tuesday after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway sold nearly a third of its shares in Internet Infrastructure and Domain Name Registry Company for $1.23 billion.

Berkshire was Belicin’s biggest shareholder, with a 6.9% discount until Monday’s closing price before selling 4.3 million shares for $285 each.

Verisign shares fell more than 7% in early trading on Tuesday.

The sale reduced ownership of Berkshire, a Reston, Virginia-based company, from 14.2% to 9.6%.

An additional 515,032 shares may be sold to meet demand. The remaining Berkshire holdings are subject to a 365-day lockup agreement.

Verisign said the sale aims to reduce Berkshire’s interest to less than 10%. This is a threshold that creates regulatory obligations.

Berkshire did not respond to requests for comment.

Buffett’s company began investing in Verisign in 2012, owning nearly 13.3 million shares worth around $4.07 billion before its sale.

Verisign shares have risen more than six times since Berkshire began purchasing. Less investments in Berkshire technology companies are often spearheaded by Buffett’s portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler.

“Subject to “outperform,” says Rob Oliver, a Baird Equity Research analyst, “writing that short-term weaknesses and questions about Berkshire’s ultimate intentions can be driven by inventory questions.

Berkshire will close March with $347.7 billion in cash and update that total when it releases its second quarter results on Saturday.

Buffett, 94, has been running a conglomerate based in Omaha, Nebraska since 1965. Berkshire also owns nearly 200 companies, including stocks such as BNSF Railway, Geico Auto Insurance, and Apple and American Express.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York edited by Marguerita Choy)