VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) SVP John Calys Sells 447 Shares

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) SVP John Calys sold 447 shares of VeriSign stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $231.75, for a total value of $103,592.25. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 23,735 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,500,586.25. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

VeriSign Price Performance

VRSN opened at $237.07 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $214.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $195.25. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1 year low of $167.04 and a 1 year high of $239.84. The company has a market capitalization of $22.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.63 and a beta of 0.90.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The information services provider reported $2.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.00. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 43.01% and a net margin of 50.47%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Baird R W upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird raised VeriSign from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $200.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on VeriSign from $246.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th.

Institutional Trading of VeriSign

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,960 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $406,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 3,256 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $674,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 1.9% in the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 3,038 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $577,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. West Family Investments Inc. increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 3.9% in the third quarter. West Family Investments Inc. now owns 1,537 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $292,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CX Institutional increased its position in shares of VeriSign by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. CX Institutional now owns 1,173 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $243,000 after acquiring an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.90% of the company’s stock.

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.