Verisign raises guidance following strong first quarter

The domain market is sizzling as more firms go online.

Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) noted first quarter earnings yesterday along with domain growth that exceeded expectations.

The registry processed 11.6 million fresh .com and .net domain name registrations in Q1. That added 2.8 million domains to its base following accounting for deletions. As of today, there are 155.1 million registered .com domains and 13.5 million .net

For comparison, Verisign processed 10.0 million domain registrations in the first quarter of 2020.

The firm credits a growing economy for the uplift. Domain registrars tell it that growth is broad and is driven by modest businesses and individuals.

Verisign expects this to continue and has upped its guidance for the year. It increased its projected revenue range to $1.315 billion to $1.330 billion, up from $1.300 billion to $1.320 billion. It also increased its .com/.net domain base growth projection of 2.5% to 4.5%, to 4.0%-5.5%.

Its earnings will be helped by a 7% increase in the price it charges for .com registrations and renewals starting September 1.

The firm also disclosed that it expects an Independent Review Panel to issue a ruling on .web within 60 days from April 7. Verisign won the auction for the domain but runner-up bidder Afilias disputed the auction since Verisign bid through a different entity.