VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Sells $144,580.00 in Stock

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Thomas Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.16, for a total transaction of $144,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 32,895 shares in the company, valued at $9,511,918.20. The trade was a 1.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

VeriSign Stock Performance

NASDAQ VRSN opened at $292.71 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $26.43 billion, a PE ratio of 31.75 and a beta of 0.70. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $282.43 and a 200-day moving average of $271.37. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52-week low of $208.86 and a 52-week high of $312.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $434.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $433.19 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 49.76% and a negative return on equity of 39.20%. VeriSign’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.21 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the stock 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 Wednesday, June 24th. Wedbush increased their price objective on VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. Finally, Zacks Research raised VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, VeriSign has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $333.00.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On VeriSign

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its position in VeriSign by 30,008.2% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 34,563,589 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $8,694,816,000 after buying an additional 34,448,791 shares in the last quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new position in VeriSign in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,261,494,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in VeriSign in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,116,154,000. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,253,980 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,189,285,000 after acquiring an additional 321,737 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 14.1% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,020,169 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $976,700,000 after acquiring an additional 496,674 shares during the period. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

VeriSign Company Profile

VeriSign, Inc (NASDAQ: VRSN) is a global provider of internet infrastructure and domain name registry services. The company operates the authoritative registry for the .com and .net top-level domains, maintaining the systems that support the registration and resolution of millions of internet addresses worldwide.

VeriSign’s services include domain registry operations, Domain Name System (DNS) services, DNS security and stability solutions, and related internet infrastructure. Its systems help domain name registrars, businesses, governments and internet users access websites and online services reliably.