Company Profile
Introduction
VeriSign (ticker: VRSN) is a public company focusing on a variety of network infrastructure services.
Company history
VeriSign was spun off in 1995 from RSA.com, a leader in public key encryption technology.
Initial Public Offering
VeriSign was listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange on January 30, 1998.
Once a glorious time
It’s important in 1990
VeriSign rose to fame during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s as the go-to place to register website domains, controlling domains such as .com, .net, .cc and .name. Registration. It occupies an integral part in the backbone of the Internet.
Glorious past
VeriSign first became famous in the late 1990s, when the Internet was booming. Its stock price more than doubled in the year it went public, and soared nearly 12 times in 1999. Before the Internet bubble burst, on February 29, 2000, VeriSign The stock price reached $253 per day. After more than 20 years, on December 29, 2021, the company’s stock price returned to US$253 and closed at US$255.93.
Company’s main business
Root server management and domain name registration
VeriSign’s main business includes managing two of the world’s 13 root servers (A and J), the registration of .com, .net and .name generic top-level domains, and .cc and .tv country code top-level domains, as well as Operation of back-end systems for the .jobs, .gov, and .edu top-level domains. An RFID directory entrusted by EPCglobal, one of the largest SS7 signaling networks in North America.
A Monopoly Business
Verisign holds exclusive registration rights for the .com and .net domains. In other words, it has a monopoly on the most popular top-level domains, and this situation isn’t expected to change anytime soon. The only factor limiting its monopoly is its contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). This limits the rate at which it can raise prices for new domains and renewals. To maintain its exclusive rights, all it needs to do is operate critical internet infrastructure and provide uninterrupted Domain Name System (DNS) service.
Security Services
The company also provides a range of security services, including managed DNS service (MDNS), distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection, and cyber threat reporting.
Security Technology
In addition, VeriSign also provides security services such as electronic certificates and payment processing because it has many security technologies. VeriSign also provides firewall management for mobile roaming, digital content downloads on mobile devices, and toll-free telephone database queries. operating projects.
Buffett and VeriSign
My book about VeriSign
In Section 3-3 of my book “The Rules of 10 Baggers“, I spent an entire section discussing all of Buffett’s technology stock holdings throughout his investment career, including detailed tables of his buying and selling history, shareholding percentages, etc. and analysis. Among them is the protagonist of this article, VeriSign.
Key Shareholders
Berkshire is very familiar with VeriSign, having first purchased shares of the company more than a decade ago in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway announced in 2024 and 2025 that it had been increasing its purchases of VeriSign shares since December 2024, causing U.S. stock investors to start paying attention to this Internet company whose stock price has remained almost unchanged for many years.
Berkshire Hathaway began buying VeriSign shares in the fourth quarter of 2012. Berkshire Hathaway currently owns 13.7% of VeriSign’s outstanding shares, worth nearly $2.7 billion. Berkshire is currently VeriSign’s largest shareholder.
Possible reasons Buffett accumulated VeriSign
One reason that may have prompted Berkshire’s decision to increase its stake in VeriSign was the company’s high profit margins.
In the third quarter of 2024, VeriSign’s gross profit margin was 88.02%, ranking 11th among S&P 500 companies, its operating profit margin was 71.25%, ranking 6th, and its net income margin was 51.54%, ranking 7 digits. All three margin measures improved from a year ago.
VeriSign’s profit margins were about 56%, according to financial data through the third quarter, ranking it fifth among the most profitable companies in the S&P 500, tied with Nvidia. VeriSign ranks third in operating profit margin and 13th in gross profit margin.
The performance is really not good
2024 Q3 Financial Report
Here are VeriSign’s key financial performance numbers for the third quarter of 2024:
- Revenue: $391 million, up 3.8% from the same period in 2023
- Operating income: $269 million, compared to $254 million in the same period of 2023
- Net income: $201 million, compared to $188 million in the same period of 2023
- Diluted earnings per share (EPS): $2.07, compared to $1.83 in the same period of 2023
Why has it declined in recent years?
VeriSign was very famous in the late 1990s, when the Internet was booming. This was because the Internet was just emerging and the Internet market was booming. VeriSign’s business was the main one in the Internet, and it was Immediate beneficiary; business is booming.
Because at that time, he did not have many competitors, but today, there are countless companies in the market that can provide most of the services that VeriSign can provide. This result will of course affect the company’s business performance. And it is reflected in the stock price performance in recent years.
Capital market performance
Market Cap
As of December 26, 2024, VeriSign’s market value is US$19.6 billion, which is only considered a mid-cap stock in the U.S. stock market.
Price-to-Earnings Ratio
As of December 26, 2024, VeriSign’s P/E ratio is 23.73 times.
Stock price performance
As of December 26, 2024, VeriSign’s stock:
- It has risen by 1.19% since the beginning of 2024.
- Over the past five years, it has increased by 5.1%.
- Since the company went public, it has risen by 3096%.
Stock Splits
VeriSign has had two stock splits since its IPO. The most recent stock split occurred on December 7, 1999.
| Date | Split | Multiple | Accumulated Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999-12-07 | 2:1 | x2 | x4 |
| 1999-06-01 | 2:1 | x2 | x2 |
Postscript
Sure enough, VeriSign announced on July 28, 2025, that Berkshire Hathaway would sell approximately one-third of its VeriSign holdings, an investment it began in 2012 and currently valued at over $4 billion.
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