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VeriSign, Inc. (VRSN), headquartered in Reston, Virginia, provides domain name registry services and internet infrastructure that enable internet navigation for various recognized domain names. Valued at $18.5 billion by market cap, the company enables the security, stability, and resiliency of key internet infrastructure and services, as well as provides root zone maintainer services.
Companies worth $10 billion or more are generally described as “large-cap stocks,” and VRSN perfectly fits that description, with its market cap exceeding this mark, underscoring its size, influence, and dominance within the tech sector.
VeriSign dominates the domain name registry market, managing .com and .net domains, with 170.6 million registrations as of June 30, 2024. Its robust infrastructure, trusted brand, and operation of two root servers solidify its pivotal role in the Internet ecosystem.
Despite its notable strength, VRSN shares have slipped 15.7% from their 52-week high of $220.91, achieved on Dec. 14, 2023. Over the past three months, VRSN stock has gained 4%, underperforming the Invesco NASDAQ Internet ETF’s (PNQI) 5.8% gains during the same time frame.
In the longer term, shares of VRSN dipped 9.6% on a YTD basis and declined 7% over the past 52 weeks, underperforming PNQI’s YTD gains of 20.6% and 44.2% returns over the last year.
To confirm the bearish trend, VRSN has been trading below its 200-day moving average since December 2023. However, it has been trading above its 50-day moving average since mid-August, with slight fluctuations recently.
On Jul. 25, VRSN shares closed up more than 1% after reporting its Q2 results. Its EPS increased 12.3% year over year to $2.01. The company’s revenue stood at $387.1 million, up 4.1% year over year. However, VRSN concluded the quarter with 170.6 million .com and .net domain name registrations in the domain name base, down 2.2% year over year, representing a net decrease of 1.8 million domain names.
In the competitive arena of internet stocks, GoDaddy Inc. (GDDY) has taken the lead over VRSN, returning 46.6% on a YTD basis and 117.2% over the past 52 weeks.
Wall Street analysts are moderately bullish on VRSN’s prospects. The stock has a consensus “Moderate Buy” rating from the two analysts covering it, and the mean price target of $207.50 suggests a potential upside of 11.4% from current price levels.
On the date of publication, Neha Panjwani did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
