Insider Selling: VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) CEO Sells 5,000 Shares of Stock

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) CEO D James Bidzos sold 5,000 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.82, for a total value of $1,424,100.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 526,772 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $150,035,201.04. This trade represents a 0.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

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

• On Wednesday, July 9th, D James Bidzos sold 2,000 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $289.29, for a total value of $578,580.00.
• On Wednesday, June 18th, D James Bidzos sold 4,000 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.87, for a total value of $1,127,480.00.
• On Tuesday, June 17th, D James Bidzos sold 5,000 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $283.67, for a total value of $1,418,350.00.
• On Wednesday, June 11th, D James Bidzos sold 2,000 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $279.28, for a total value of $558,560.00.
• 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 1.4%

Shares of VeriSign stock traded down $3.90 during trading on Friday, reaching $281.39. The stock had a trading volume of 532,590 shares, compared to its average volume of 757,810. The company has a market capitalization of $26.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.40 and a beta of 0.78. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $281.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $249.37. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $172.49 and a 52 week high of $291.54.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The information services provider reported $2.10 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $2.10. The company had revenue of $402.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $400.44 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 41.37% and a net margin of 50.23%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.92 earnings per share.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of VeriSign

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of VRSN. Berkshire Hathaway Inc raised its holdings in VeriSign by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 13,271,457 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,746,661,000 after acquiring an additional 455,844 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in VeriSign by 1.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,514,290 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $2,669,263,000 after acquiring an additional 119,555 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in VeriSign by 75.5% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 2,329,640 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $586,417,000 after acquiring an additional 1,002,510 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in VeriSign by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,701,154 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $352,071,000 after acquiring an additional 35,326 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in VeriSign by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,284,759 shares of the information services provider's stock worth $265,894,000 after acquiring an additional 116,833 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have issued reports on VRSN. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on VeriSign from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 1st. Citigroup reissued a "buy" rating on shares of VeriSign in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised VeriSign from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, April 12th.

About VeriSign

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.