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

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Thomas Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $292.35, for a total value of $146,175.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 34,551 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,100,984.85. This represents a 1.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

VeriSign Price Performance

VRSN stock opened at $282.94 on Thursday. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $208.86 and a 1-year high of $312.48. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $273.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $263.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.69 and a beta of 0.70.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 analysts’ expectations of $433.19 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.21 earnings per share. VeriSign’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.56 earnings per share for the current year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th will be paid a $0.81 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. VeriSign’s payout ratio is currently 35.14%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VeriSign

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. DV Equities LLC purchased a new stake in VeriSign during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Addison Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 429.2% during the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 127 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 25.3% during the 1st quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the period. Finally, Activest Wealth Management grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 788.0% during the 4th quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 222 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $54,000 after acquiring an additional 197 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of VeriSign from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Wedbush raised their price target on VeriSign from $318.00 to $324.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on VeriSign from $305.00 to $355.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target 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.