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

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Thomas Indelicarto sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $290.78, for a total transaction of $145,390.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 33,395 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,710,598.10. This trade represents a 1.48% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale 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 Price Performance

Shares of VRSN stock opened at $293.35 on Friday. VeriSign, Inc. has a one year low of $208.86 and a one year high of $312.48. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $278.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $268.72. The company has a market capitalization of $26.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.82 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $434.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $433.19 million. VeriSign had a net margin of 49.76% and a negative return on equity of 39.20%. VeriSign’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.21 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 19th were given a dividend of $0.81 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.14%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VeriSign

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Corient Private Wealth LP grew its holdings in VeriSign by 2,587.2% during the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 78,951 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $19,861,000 after buying an additional 76,013 shares in the last quarter. Groupe la Francaise boosted its position in shares of VeriSign by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Groupe la Francaise now owns 1,481 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $373,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al bought a new position in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $67,671,000. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 30,008.2% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 34,563,589 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $8,694,816,000 after purchasing an additional 34,448,791 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital grew its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 8.1% in the second quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 2,021 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $546,000 after purchasing an additional 151 shares in the last quarter. 92.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on VRSN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $333.00.

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc (NASDAQ: VRSN) is an internet infrastructure company that operates critical components of the global Domain Name System (DNS) and provides cybersecurity-related services. The company is best known as the authoritative registry operator for the .com and .net top-level domains, maintaining the central databases and zone files that enable domain name resolution for millions of websites. VeriSign’s registry role is performed under contractual agreements with Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and involves high-availability, highly secure operations to support continuous internet connectivity.

In addition to its registry business, VeriSign offers a suite of services designed to protect and accelerate DNS and internet traffic for enterprises and service providers.