VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) Stock: Insider D James Bidzos Sells 3,300 Shares

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) CEO D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $302.85, for a total transaction of $999,405.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 375,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $113,607,211.95. This trade represents a 0.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 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, October 6th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $292.33, for a total transaction of $964,689.00.
• On Tuesday, September 29th, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.78, for a total transaction of $919,974.00.
• On Tuesday, September 22nd, D. Bidzos sold 3,300 shares of VeriSign stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $304.74, for a total transaction of $1,005,642.00.
• 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 shares were 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 shares were 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 shares were 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 stock was 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 stock was 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 value of $927,960.00.

VeriSign Stock Up 0.9%

NASDAQ VRSN opened at $304.09 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $27.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.69 and a beta of 0.69. VeriSign, Inc. has a 52-week low of $208.86 and a 52-week high of $312.48. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $291.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $281.64.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The information services provider reported $2.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.02. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 39.20% and a net margin of 49.76%. The firm had revenue of $434.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $433.19 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.21 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that VeriSign, Inc. will post 9.59 earnings per share for the current year.

VeriSign Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 19th were issued a $0.81 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 19th. This represents a $3.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. VeriSign’s payout ratio is presently 35.14%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On VeriSign

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSN. Addison Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of VeriSign during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. PenderFund Capital Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of VeriSign by 120.8% in the 4th quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd now owns 234 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the period. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 40.5% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 243 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Assets Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the first quarter valued at approximately $64,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on VRSN shares. Wedbush upped their price target on VeriSign from $324.00 to $341.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $308.00 to $316.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of VeriSign from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of VeriSign from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $333.00.

About VeriSign

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.