Reglikedomain industry desk

Doing very well this year — Domain stocks

Tucows more than doubles and other domain stocks also on a tear.

It has been a decent year for the NASDAQ so far. But returns on domain stocks have been exceptional.

Consider Tucows (TCX), which opened the year at 75 cents. It has more than doubled to $1.52 at today’s open. The firm continues to buy back stock, but I also think there’s overall enthusiasm for its domain business and the prospects of its mobile phone offering Ting.

Demand Media, which owns eNom, has jumped 35% this year to today’s open of $9.52. Investors are becoming more comfortable with the firm’s ability to adapt to search engine algorithm changes. It’s also well positioned to take advantage of fresh top level domains. As a registrar, it will certainly profit from other firm’s fresh TLDs. More risky is its $18 million bet on its own fresh TLDs.

Web.com (WWWW), which owns domain registrars Register.com and Network Solutions, is also up 35% this year to today’s $15.97 open.

Finally, .com and .net registry VeriSign (VRSN) has marched forward 9% this year. It has a lot of fresh TLD clients (over 200 applications), but I suspect its revenue from fresh TLDs will remain insignificant compared to its .com registry revenue for the foreseeable future.

Also on the wire

Other reporting from the domain desk.

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