Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. took a notable step towards investing in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) as they acquired 1,000 shares valued at approximately $206,000. This new stake marks an intriguing development for the domain name registry services and internet infrastructure provider.
VeriSign recently released its quarterly earnings report, posting impressive earnings per share numbers that were higher than the consensus estimate of $1.53 by $0.17 at $1.70 per share. The company also saw a positive increase in revenue, with an 8.5% rise since the same quarter last year.
VeriSign is known for providing key internet infrastructure and services which hold critical importance to a majority of today’s most recognizable domain names. Their efforts provide security, stability, and resiliency to web navigation processes that serve billions of users worldwide.
With Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co.’s new acquisition comes curiosity surrounding the organization’s future vision for VeriSign, and how this could potentially impact the domain name registry industry moving forward.
As one of the established leaders in their industry sector – alongside competitors such as GoDaddy and Google Domains – VeriSign will be looking to capitalize on its recent successes, with analysts anticipating positive growth throughout the current fiscal year.
The latest developments are set to make waves across the market as investors become increasingly intrigued by this field’s continued evolution, and recent events are sure to draw some thoughtful discussion amongst peers regarding how best to harness this momentum profitably.
Overall, while it’s too early to tell precisely what direction these events will lead them down; we can expect significant interest from other savvy investors looking to cash in on this rapidly growing market opportunity while keeping close tabs on both VeriSign itself and any similarly-positioned companies operating within the space.
Insider Selling at VeriSign Inc. Amid Strong Institutional Investor Interest
VeriSign Inc. is a leader in providing domain name registry services and internet infrastructure that enables navigation for some of the world’s most recognized domain names. The company has a market capitalization of $22.50 billion with shares opening at $215.62 on Thursday, May 6th, 2021. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.21% of the stock while the remaining stake is held by insiders.
In recent months, several institutional investors and hedge funds have made changes to their positions in VRSN, highlighting their confidence in VeriSign’s future growth potential. Among these buyers include Concord Wealth Partners who bought a new stake valued at approximately $25,000, Capital Directions Investment Advisors LLC who bought a new stake valued at around $28,000, Accurate Wealth Management LLC who acquired a new position valued at approximately $29,000, General Partner Inc. bought a new stake worth roughly $31,000 while Tobam invested $34,000 to acquire its own position.
VeriSign’s service offerings not only enable the security and stability of the internet but also provide root zone maintainer services; this has garnered interest from Wall Street with Citigroup increasing its price target on VeriSign from $243.00 to $252.00 and giving it a “buy” rating in February this year.
However, there are recent reports indicating that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) D James Bidzos has been selling off some of his shares in multiple transactions since February this year. In one such transaction on Tuesday, February 14th Bidzos sold 3,000 shares of VeriSign stockat an average price of $213.43 amounting to a total transaction cost of $640,290. Afterward,the CEO still holds around 668k shares which are valued at about $142 million as per current pricing.
Another executive Vice President Thomas C Indelicarto also sold some of his shares in VeriSign, a total of 614. These shares are worth approximately $130k and were sold at an average price of $212.74.These sales from insiders have totaled to around 36k shares, equivalent to approximately $7.5 million in the last three months alone.
Despite recent changes in insider trades, VeriSign’s growth potential and leadership in domain name registry services remain strong with its stock maintaining a good PE ratio of 34.50 and a beta of 1.01 while recording a year high trading price of $224.56 and50-day moving average price of $204.72.
