Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, VeriSign, Inc. (VRSN) is a critical internet infrastructure company best known for operating the domain name registries for .com and .net. It is valued at a market cap of $20.1 billion.
This tech company has struggled to keep up with the broader market over the past 52 weeks. Shares of VRSN have climbed 3.5% over this time frame, while the broader S&P 500 Index ($SPX) has gained 20.5%. However, on a YTD basis, the stock is up 16%, outpacing SPX’s 12.1% rise.
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Narrowing the focus, VRSN has also underperformed the State Street Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK), which gained 41.6% over the past 52 weeks and 27.3% on a YTD basis.
www.barchart.com On July 23, VerSign reported its second-quarter earnings and its shares popped 7% in the next trading session as investors were pleased with steady revenue growth, expanding profitability, strong domain-registration trends, and an improved full-year outlook. Revenue rose 6% year over year to $434.60 million, while operating income increased 5.6% to $296.3 million. Its EPS increased 7.7% to $2.38. The company ended the quarter with 179.10 million .com and .net domain registrations, representing 5.1% growth year over year. VeriSign also returned significant capital to shareholders, repurchasing 0.7 million shares for $197 million during the quarter, while its board expanded the remaining share-repurchase authorization to $1.50 billion.
For fiscal 2026, ending in December, analysts expect VRSN’s EPS to grow 8.5% year over year to $9.56. The stock has surpassed the consensus estimates in two of the past three quarters, while missing on one occasion.
Among the five analysts covering the stock, the consensus rating is a "Strong Buy,” based on four “Strong Buy” and one “Hold” rating.
www.barchart.com The consensus is bullish than a month ago, when the stock had an overall “Moderate Buy” rating.
On July 24, Wedbush reinforced its bullish stance on VeriSign, raising its price target to $324 from $318 while maintaining an “Outperform” rating. The firm cited VeriSign’s strong Q2 results and raised full-year outlook as evidence of continued momentum in domain growth, signaling confidence in the company’s ability to sustain its growth trajectory.
The mean price target of $330 suggests a 17.1% potential upside from the current levels, while its Street-high price target of $355 suggests a 26% potential upside from the current levels.
On the date of publication, Kritika Sarmah 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.
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