Insider Selling: VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) CEO Sells 2,000 Shares of Stock

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) CEO D James Bidzos sold 2,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.28, for a total value of $558,560.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 542,772 shares in the company, valued at approximately $151,585,364.16. This trade represents a 0.37% 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.

D James Bidzos also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, June 10th, D James Bidzos sold 5,000 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.71, for a total value of $1,383,550.00.
• On Wednesday, May 21st, D James Bidzos sold 2,000 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.66, for a total value of $561,320.00.
• On Tuesday, May 20th, D James Bidzos sold 5,000 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.40, for a total value of $1,402,000.00.

VeriSign Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ VRSN traded down $1.91 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $279.90. The company's stock had a trading volume of 427,324 shares, compared to its average volume of 759,548. The business's 50 day moving average is $269.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $237.01. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $172.49 and a 12-month high of $288.95. The firm has a market cap of $26.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.99 and a beta of 0.77.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.10. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 43.01% and a net margin of 50.47%. The company had revenue of $402.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $400.44 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.92 earnings per share. VeriSign's revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a -- dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 28th. Investors of record on Monday, May 19th were paid a $0.77 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 19th. VeriSign's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.65%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on VeriSign from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Wall Street Zen upgraded VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, April 12th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new stake in VeriSign during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its position in VeriSign by 13,000.0% during the 1st quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 131 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 130 shares in the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in VeriSign during the 1st quarter valued at $34,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in VeriSign by 106.5% during the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 159 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 82 shares in the last quarter. Finally, WPG Advisers LLC bought a new stake in VeriSign during the 1st quarter valued at $42,000. Institutional investors own 92.90% of the company's stock.

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.