Verisign Downgraded By Wells Fargo: Growth Is Slowing Due To New gTLD’s & Could Get Worse

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TheStreet.com is reporting that Wells Fargo analyst Gray Powell downgraded Verisign (VRSN) today writing:

VeriSign’s domain name growth appears to be falling a bit lower than the midpoint of second quarter expectations and competition from new gTLDs could be influencing overall growth to some degree.

“The company is tracking toward about 400K domain name additions in the upcoming quarter, which is lower than the 550K guidance midpoint, said the analyst, citing ICANN zone files.”

“The analyst also noted that other domain names that will possibly be more popular haven’t yet been launched.”

“He downgraded the stock to Market Perform from Outperform and lowered his price target range on the shares to $51-$55 from $56-$60.”

TheStreet.com reports that the same analyst said while Google’s (GOOG) recently announced domain program could be a good thing for VeriSign, as small businesses buy more .com and .net web domains, if Google sells higher profile domains at larger discounts or gives them away for free, it could result in more competition to VeriSign’s .com and .net domains starting late next year.

Shares of Verisign are trading down $1.65 a share just over 3% today on the news although it has bounced off the lows of the session which was $48.64

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  1. Jeff Schneider says

    Hello MHB,

    Obviously Gary has no clue what Renewals are? Pity he is in a position to make judgements on a subject he knows nothing about. Such is Wall Street Media coverage. Verisign is a buy Now. 6/27/14

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

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