Where Will VeriSign Stock Be in 1 Year?

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Leo Sun, The Motley Fool

Wed, Apr 2, 2025, 7:00 AM 4 min read

VeriSign's (NASDAQ: VRSN) banal rallied much than 30% implicit the past 12 months, adjacent arsenic fears of rising tariffs, sticky inflation, and elevated involvement rates rattled the markets. During that aforesaid period, the S&P 500 lone precocious 6%. Let's spot wherefore this dilatory but dependable banal bushed the marketplace -- and if it volition caput adjacent higher successful a year.

VeriSign operates the authoritative domain sanction registries for 2 of the internet's astir fashionable top-level domains: .com and .net. It's besides the superior subcontractor for the .edu and .jobs domains. It sells its domain names to registrars, similar GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) and Network Solutions, which past merchantability them to nationalist customers.

From 2014 to 2024, VeriSign's year-end .com and .net registrations grew from 130.6 cardinal to 169 million. That dilatory but dependable enlargement indicates that domain names volition stay valuable, adjacent arsenic much mobile apps regenerate accepted websites.

Person looking astatine a machine screen.

As agelong arsenic companies, organizations, and different customers request to registry and renew those websites, VeriSign volition support growing. From 2014 to 2024, its gross roseate astatine a compound yearly maturation complaint (CAGR) of 4%, its net per stock (EPS) accrued astatine a CAGR of 12%, and it bought backmost astir a 5th of its shares. Its renewal complaint has held dependable successful the debased 70s implicit the past decade.

Those unchangeable maturation rates, on with its evergreen concern model, drew successful a batch of investors. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought its archetypal shares of VeriSign successful 2012, and it present owns a $3.3 cardinal involvement successful the company. VeriSign was besides 1 of the fewer stocks that Berkshire accumulated implicit the past twelvemonth arsenic it sold many of its apical holdings to rise its currency to grounds levels.

Moreover, VeriSign's insiders bought astir 11 times arsenic galore shares arsenic they bought implicit the past 12 months. That warmer capitalist and insider sentiment suggests it's inactive undervalued.

VeriSign has a wide moat and plentifulness of pricing power, but immoderate politicians and advocacy groups person repeatedly called for an antitrust probe of the company.

These critics assertion it's unfair for a azygous institution to power the internet's astir fashionable domains, and they've adjacent pressed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to artifact the renewal of its 2 semipermanent .com agreements with the U.S. authorities -- a Registry Agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and a Cooperative Agreement with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

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