Insider Selling: VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Sells 125 Shares of Stock

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 125 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.69, for a total transaction of $25,086.25. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 25,173 shares in the company, valued at $5,051,969.37. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

VeriSign Stock Performance

VeriSign stock traded down $1.00 during trading on Monday, reaching $199.72. The company had a trading volume of 538,537 shares, compared to its average volume of 501,584. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.64 and a beta of 0.96. VeriSign, Inc. has a 12-month low of $169.24 and a 12-month high of $229.72. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $207.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $212.71.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The information services provider reported $1.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.09. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 45.15% and a net margin of 48.74%. The business had revenue of $372.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $373.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.54 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that VeriSign, Inc. will post 7.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VeriSign

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of VRSN. Virginia Retirement Systems ET AL acquired a new stake in shares of VeriSign in the second quarter worth $33,667,000. Comerica Bank acquired a new stake in VeriSign in the 2nd quarter valued at $973,000. Osaic Holdings Inc. raised its position in VeriSign by 2.4% in the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 6,677 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $1,508,000 after purchasing an additional 156 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 1,068.2% during the second quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 11,273 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $2,547,000 after purchasing an additional 10,308 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its stake in shares of VeriSign by 4.6% during the second quarter. National Pension Service now owns 160,637 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $35,811,000 after purchasing an additional 7,024 shares in the last quarter. 90.95% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSN has been the topic of several research reports. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of VeriSign from $252.00 to $249.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 24th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut shares of VeriSign from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $265.00 to $245.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 11th.

VeriSign Company Profile

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 the 13 internet root servers; and offering registration services and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net domains, which supports global e-commerce.