Insider Selling: VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) CEO Sells $964,689.00 in Stock

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $292.33, for a total value of $964,689.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 378,427 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $110,625,564.91. This represents a 0.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

D James Bidzos also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, September 29th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.78, for a total transaction of $919,974.00.
• On Tuesday, September 22nd, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.74, for a total transaction of $1,005,642.00.
• On Tuesday, September 15th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.58, for a total value of $978,714.00.
• On Tuesday, September 8th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $284.40, for a total transaction of $938,520.00.
• On Tuesday, September 1st, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.09, for a total value of $960,597.00.
• On Tuesday, August 25th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.16, for a total transaction of $960,828.00.
• On Tuesday, August 18th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.85, for a total value of $916,905.00.
• On Tuesday, August 4th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.54, for a total value of $978,582.00.
• On Tuesday, July 28th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $281.20, for a total value of $927,960.00.
• On Tuesday, July 21st, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.44, for a total transaction of $892,452.00.

VeriSign Stock Up 2.0%

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $303.74 on Friday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $208.86 and a 12-month high of $312.48. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $290.68 and a 200-day moving average of $279.83. The company has a market capitalization of $27.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.94 and a beta of 0.69.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $434.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $433.19 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.21 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.59 EPS for the current year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th were given a $0.81 dividend. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 19th. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.14%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VeriSign

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. lifted its stake in VeriSign by 137.2% in 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 purchasing an additional 7,130 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its position in VeriSign by 25.1% during the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,765 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,199,000 after buying an additional 955 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in VeriSign by 1.8% during 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 buying an additional 73,583 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake 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 valued at $1,663,000 after buying an additional 1,454 shares during the period. Finally, Archford Capital Strategies LLC raised its stake in VeriSign by 2.2% in 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. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VRSN has been the subject of several research reports. Wedbush raised their price target on shares of VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st. Zacks Research downgraded shares of VeriSign from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus 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.