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

Key Points

• VeriSign EVP Thomas Indelicarto sold 500 shares for approximately $142,190, reducing his ownership by 1.52% to 32,395 shares. The sale was conducted under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.
• VeriSign shares recently traded at $288.32, while the company reported quarterly revenue of $434.6 million and earnings of $2.38 per share, slightly exceeding analyst expectations.
• Analysts maintain a generally positive view, with a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $333.00; institutional investors own 92.9% of the stock.

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) EVP Thomas Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.38, for a total transaction of $142,190.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 32,395 shares in the company, valued at $9,212,490.10. This represents a 1.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSN traded up $1.42 on Friday, hitting $288.32. 1,241,269 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 808,185. The company's 50 day moving average price is $289.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $277.81. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $208.86 and a one year high of $312.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.27 and a beta of 0.69.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.02. VeriSign had a net margin of 49.76% and a negative return on equity of 39.20%. The business had revenue of $434.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $433.19 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.21 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were given 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 (DPR) is currently 35.14%.

Institutional Trading of VeriSign

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VRSN. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in VeriSign by 25.1% in 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 buying an additional 955 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of VeriSign by 1.8% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,150,727 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,044,157,000 after buying an additional 73,583 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in VeriSign by 28.2% during the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,612 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $1,663,000 after purchasing an additional 1,454 shares during the period. Archford Capital Strategies LLC raised its holdings in VeriSign by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Archford Capital Strategies LLC now owns 4,062 shares of the information services provider's stock valued at $1,022,000 after acquiring an additional 86 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service grew its position in shares of VeriSign by 971.9% during the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 171,145 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $43,053,000 after purchasing an additional 155,179 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VRSN. Zacks Research lowered shares of VeriSign from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of VeriSign in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Finally, Wedbush boosted their target price on VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target 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.

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