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

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Thomas Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $289.16, for a total value of $144,580.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 32,895 shares in the company, valued at $9,511,918.20. This represents 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 link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

VeriSign Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $288.85 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $281.71 and a two-hundred day moving average of $271.22. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12 month low of $208.86 and a 12 month high of $312.48. The company has a market capitalization of $26.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.33 and a beta of 0.70.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last issued its 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 during 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%.VeriSign’s revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.21 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VeriSign

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Advisors Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in VeriSign by 25.3% during the first quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 198 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC increased its stake in shares of VeriSign by 12.3% in the 1st quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 1,232 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $313,000 after acquiring an additional 135 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of VeriSign by 104.5% in the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 4,125 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,047,000 after acquiring an additional 2,108 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its stake in VeriSign by 122.1% during the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 3,358 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $852,000 after acquiring an additional 1,846 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in VeriSign by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 9,346 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,373,000 after acquiring an additional 186 shares during the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on VRSN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, July 27th. Finally, Wedbush increased their target price on VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. One research 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $333.00.

About VeriSign

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.