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

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Thomas Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.38, for a total value of $154,690.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 31,395 shares in the company, valued at $9,712,985.10. The trade was a 1.57% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

VeriSign Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $313.88 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $296.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $272.01. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $208.86 and a 12-month high of $317.41. The firm has a market cap of $28.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.95 and a beta of 0.66.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 22nd. The information services provider reported $2.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.46 by ($0.11). The firm had revenue of $443.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $440.58 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 38.40% and a net margin of 49.06%. VeriSign’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.27 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, November 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 17th will be given a $0.81 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 17th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. VeriSign’s payout ratio is presently 34.84%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On VeriSign

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. Addison Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. PenderFund Capital Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 40.5% during the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 243 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Global Assets Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign during the first quarter valued at about $64,000. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on VRSN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target 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. Zacks Research lowered shares of VeriSign from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Robert W. Baird set a $380.00 price objective on shares of VeriSign in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings raised shares of VeriSign from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of VeriSign from $325.00 to $345.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.00.

VeriSign Company Profile

VeriSign, Inc (NASDAQ: VRSN) provides internet infrastructure services that support the global domain name system. The company operates the authoritative registry for the .com and .net top-level domains and provides registry services for certain other domains, helping maintain the databases that connect domain names with internet addresses.

The company’s services include domain name registry operations, domain name registration-related support for accredited registrars, and infrastructure designed to improve the availability, stability, and security of internet naming services.