Insider Selling: VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) CEO Sells $1,005,642.00 in Stock

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.74, for a total transaction of $1,005,642.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 385,027 shares in the company, valued at approximately $117,333,127.98. This represents a 0.85% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

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

• On Tuesday, September 15th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.58, for a total transaction of $978,714.00.
• On Tuesday, September 8th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $284.40, for a total transaction of $938,520.00.
• On Tuesday, September 1st, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.09, for a total transaction of $960,597.00.
• On Tuesday, August 25th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $291.16, for a total transaction of $960,828.00.
• On Tuesday, August 18th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.85, for a total transaction of $916,905.00.
• On Tuesday, August 4th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $296.54, for a total transaction of $978,582.00.
• On Tuesday, July 28th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $281.20, for a total transaction of $927,960.00.
• On Tuesday, July 21st, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.44, for a total transaction of $892,452.00.
• On Tuesday, July 7th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $266.09, for a total value of $878,097.00.
• On Tuesday, June 30th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $250.94, for a total value of $828,102.00.

VeriSign Stock Performance

Shares of VRSN opened at $287.25 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $288.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $276.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.16 and a beta of 0.70. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52 week low of $208.86 and a 52 week high of $312.48.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 negative return on equity of 39.20% and a net margin of 49.76%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.21 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.59 EPS for the current year.

VeriSign Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 27th. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. VeriSign’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.14%.

Institutional Trading of VeriSign

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new position in VeriSign during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,261,494,000. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in VeriSign in the second quarter worth $2,116,154,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of VeriSign during the fourth quarter worth $312,900,000. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of VeriSign during the second quarter worth $172,641,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in shares of VeriSign during the second quarter worth $145,362,000. 92.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st. Zacks Research downgraded shares of VeriSign from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of VeriSign in a report on Monday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $333.00.

About VeriSign

VeriSign, Inc (NASDAQ: VRSN) is a global provider of internet infrastructure and domain name registry services. The company operates the authoritative registry for the .com and .net top-level domains, maintaining the systems that support the registration and resolution of millions of internet addresses worldwide.

VeriSign’s services include domain registry operations, Domain Name System (DNS) services, DNS security and stability solutions, and related internet infrastructure. Its systems help domain name registrars, businesses, governments and internet users access websites and online services reliably.