VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) Short Interest Down 30.3% in July

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) saw a large decline in short interest during the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,450,000 shares, a decline of 30.3% from the July 15th total of 2,080,000 shares. Approximately 1.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 739,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.0 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on VRSN shares. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of VeriSign in a report on Thursday, June 27th. StockNews.com cut VeriSign from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, June 16th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 3,684 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total transaction of $699,960.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 37,774 shares in the company, valued at $7,177,060. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 1,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.14, for a total transaction of $204,168.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 29,181 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,964,855.34. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Thomas C. Indelicarto sold 3,684 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.00, for a total transaction of $699,960.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 37,774 shares in the company, valued at $7,177,060. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.84% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VeriSign

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of VeriSign by 291.1% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 176 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 131 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in VeriSign by 117.2% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 202 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 109 shares during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in VeriSign in the second quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in VeriSign during the second quarter worth $39,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in VeriSign by 55.7% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 327 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $58,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

VeriSign Trading Up 1.6 %

VRSN stock traded up $2.84 during trading on Thursday, reaching $177.77. 682,494 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 682,526. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $178.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $183.12. VeriSign has a 1 year low of $167.04 and a 1 year high of $220.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.84 and a beta of 0.90.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The information services provider reported $2.01 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $387.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $385.80 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 55.40% and a negative return on equity of 46.63%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.79 EPS.

VeriSign Company Profile

VeriSign, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides domain name registry services and internet infrastructure that enables internet navigation for various recognized domain names worldwide. The company enables the security, stability, and resiliency of internet infrastructure and services, including providing root zone maintainer services, operating two of thirteen internet root servers; and offering registration services and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net domains, which supports global e-commerce.