VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Sells 500 Shares of Stock

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Thomas Indelicarto sold 500 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $293.14, for a total transaction of $146,570.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 31,895 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,349,700.30. The trade was a 1.54% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

VeriSign Price Performance

VeriSign stock traded up $5.95 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $303.74. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 503,960 shares, compared to its average volume of 819,242. The stock has a market cap of $27.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.94 and a beta of 0.69. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $290.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $279.66. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12 month low of $208.86 and a 12 month high of $312.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $434.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $433.19 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 39.20% and a net margin of 49.76%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.21 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VeriSign

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. boosted its position in VeriSign by 137.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. now owns 12,327 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $3,476,000 after acquiring an additional 7,130 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in VeriSign by 25.1% in the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,765 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,199,000 after purchasing an additional 955 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in VeriSign by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,150,727 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,044,157,000 after purchasing an additional 73,583 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in VeriSign by 28.2% in the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,612 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,663,000 after purchasing an additional 1,454 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Archford Capital Strategies LLC lifted its position in VeriSign by 2.2% during the second quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC now owns 4,062 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,022,000 after buying an additional 86 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on VRSN. Wedbush boosted their price objective on VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Monday, September 21st. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of VeriSign from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, VeriSign currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.