Insider Selling: VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Sells $26,050.00 in Stock

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) EVP Danny R. Mcpherson sold 125 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $208.40, for a total value of $26,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 24,281 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,060,160.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

VeriSign Price Performance

VRSN opened at $210.12 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $204.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $211.88. The firm has a market cap of $21.66 billion, a PE ratio of 29.93 and a beta of 0.94. VeriSign, Inc. has a 1 year low of $188.44 and a 1 year high of $229.72.

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 26th. The information services provider reported $1.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $376.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $378.31 million. VeriSign had a negative return on equity of 45.68% and a net margin of 49.38%. VeriSign’s quarterly revenue was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.58 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that VeriSign, Inc. will post 7.15 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VeriSign

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vantage Consulting Group Inc raised its position in VeriSign by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Vantage Consulting Group Inc now owns 1,774 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $375,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management raised its position in VeriSign by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 760 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $161,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its position in VeriSign by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 6,411 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,355,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH raised its position in VeriSign by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 4,954 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $1,119,000 after buying an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in VeriSign by 52.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 152 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.95% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSN has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com upgraded VeriSign from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 6th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on VeriSign from $252.00 to $249.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 24th.

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