Thomas Indelicarto Sells 500 Shares of VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) Stock

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Thomas Indelicarto sold 500 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $292.20, for a total value of $146,100.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 35,051 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,241,902.20. The trade was a 1.41% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

VeriSign Stock Down 1.9%

VRSN opened at $293.41 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $26.49 billion, a PE ratio of 31.82 and a beta of 0.70. The business has a 50 day moving average of $274.05 and a 200-day moving average of $261.76. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $208.86 and a 52 week high of $312.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $434.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $433.19 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 39.20% and a net margin of 49.76%.The firm’s revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.21 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.56 EPS for the current year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be issued 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 is Wednesday, August 19th. VeriSign’s payout ratio is 35.14%.

Institutional Trading of VeriSign

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VRSN. Summit Global Investments purchased a new position in VeriSign in the second quarter worth about $1,474,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the second quarter valued at approximately $12,147,000. Mill Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the second quarter valued at approximately $16,840,000. Tema ETFs LLC increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 76.3% during the second quarter. Tema ETFs LLC now owns 1,804 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $454,000 after acquiring an additional 781 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 14.4% during the second quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. now owns 1,775 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $447,000 after acquiring an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on VRSN shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Zacks Research raised shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of VeriSign from $305.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, VeriSign has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $328.75.

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc (NASDAQ: VRSN) is an internet infrastructure company that operates critical components of the global Domain Name System (DNS) and provides cybersecurity-related services. The company is best known as the authoritative registry operator for the .com and .net top-level domains, maintaining the central databases and zone files that enable domain name resolution for millions of websites. VeriSign’s registry role is performed under contractual agreements with Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and involves high-availability, highly secure operations to support continuous internet connectivity.

In addition to its registry business, VeriSign offers a suite of services designed to protect and accelerate DNS and internet traffic for enterprises and service providers.