VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) CEO D James Bidzos Sells 3,300 Shares of Company Stock

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $292.33, for a total transaction of $964,689.00. Following the sale, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at 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 stock was 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 transaction 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 transaction of $960,597.00.
• On Tuesday, August 25th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were 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 shares were sold at an average price of $277.85, for a total transaction 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 transaction of $978,582.00.
• On Tuesday, July 28th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was 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 stock was sold at an average price of $270.44, for a total value of $892,452.00.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of VRSN stock traded up $1.12 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $294.22. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,731,775 shares, compared to its average volume of 815,143. The company has a market cap of $26.57 billion, a PE ratio of 31.91 and a beta of 0.69. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $290.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $278.87. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $208.86 and a 52 week high of $312.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.02. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 39.20% and a net margin of 49.76%.The company had revenue of $434.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $433.19 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.21 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On VeriSign

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in VeriSign by 25.1% during the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,765 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,199,000 after acquiring an additional 955 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,150,727 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,044,157,000 after acquiring an additional 73,583 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of VeriSign by 28.2% in the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,612 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,663,000 after acquiring an additional 1,454 shares in the last quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 86 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service raised its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 971.9% in the second quarter. National Pension Service now owns 171,145 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $43,053,000 after purchasing an additional 155,179 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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