Insider Selling: VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Sells $142,190.00 in Stock

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Thomas Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.38, for a total value of $142,190.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 32,395 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,212,490.10. This trade represents a 1.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

VeriSign Stock Performance

VeriSign stock opened at $288.32 on Monday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $208.86 and a 52 week high of $312.48. The firm has a market cap of $26.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.27 and a beta of 0.69. The business’s fifty day moving average is $289.53 and its two-hundred day moving average is $278.14.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.02. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 39.20% and a net margin of 49.76%.The business had revenue of $434.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $433.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.21 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were given a dividend of $0.81 per share. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.14%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On VeriSign

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Addison Advisors LLC bought a new position in VeriSign in the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. PenderFund Capital Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter valued at $40,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 120.8% during the 4th quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 234 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 40.5% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 243 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of VeriSign in the 1st quarter valued at $64,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on VRSN shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Monday, September 21st. Wedbush lifted their target price on VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded VeriSign from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $333.00.

VeriSign Company Profile

VeriSign, Inc (NASDAQ:VRSN) provides critical internet infrastructure and domain name registry services. The company operates the authoritative registries for the .com and .net top-level domains and supports the security, stability and availability of these domains worldwide. VeriSign also operates the .name and .cc registries and provides backend registry services for additional top-level domains.

In addition to registry operations, VeriSign offers domain name system (DNS) services designed to help organizations maintain reliable online access.