VRSN stock has seen a decline of 10% from levels of $215 in early January 2021 to around $190 now (mid-March 2024), vs. an increase of about 40% for the S&P 500 over this roughly 3-year period.
However, the decrease in VRSN stock has been far from consistent. Returns for the stock were 17% in 2021, -19% in 2022, and 0% in 2023. In comparison, returns for the S&P 500 have been 27% in 2021, -19% in 2022, and 24% in 2023 - indicating that VRSN underperformed the S&P in 2021 and 2023.
VeriSign reported net sales of $380 million in Q4'23, up 3% from the prior year quarter. Expenses grew 0.3%, and operating income rose from $245 million to $256 million over this period. VeriSign's EPS rose to $2.60 from $1.70 in Q4'22.
Below are key drivers of VeriSign's value that present opportunities for upside or downside to the current Trefis price estimate for VeriSign:
For additional details, select a driver above or select a division from the interactive Trefis split for VeriSign at the top of the page.
Historically, VeriSign had two main businesses - Domain Names & SSL and Authentication Services. The company sold its SSL and Authentication Services business to Symantec in May 2010 for $1.28 billion.
Within this business, VeriSign controls the rights to the exclusive registry of .com and .net Internet domain names. VeriSign collects a fixed fee each time individuals or businesses register a new .com or .net domain name, or renew the registration of an existing domain name.
The source of value for the Domain Name division comes from the following:
The total domain name base for .com and .net stood at 174 million at the end of 2022. For 2023, we expect a total of around 179 million .com and .net domain names. VeriSign charges $8.20 for .com and .net per year currently.
Icann (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) recently approved a 7% increase in pricing. This should be reflected in the company's pricing policies in the coming quarters.