Guidance, reveals first-year renewal rates — Verisign ups

Firm had a great Q1, also reveals first-year renewal rates and fresh TLD preparations.

Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) noted Q1 earnings today and upped its guidance for the year.

For the quarter, fresh registrations for .com/.net jumped to 11.5 million, the highest since the first half of 2021.

Taking into consideration deletions, the domain base increased by 2.54 million in the quarter to 176.1 million.

All of the growth came from .com, which grew from 161.0 million to 163.6 million registrations during the quarter.

Q1 revenue was $429 million, up 6.6% year over year. Operating income was $294 million, up 8.5%. Net income was $215 million, up 8.0%.

The firm also disclosed a 7% wholesale price increase for .com domains, effective November 1.

As a result of its strong quarter, VeriSign raised full-year guidance.

Previously, it guided to 1.5% to 3.5% domain base growth; now it is guiding to 3.1% to 4.3%. It also upped revenue and operating income.

During the investor Q&A, Verisign revealed that first-year renewal rates are in the mid-40% range. Registrations renewing for at least a second time renew in the mid-80% range. If Verisign has previously provided the first-year rate, it was a long time ago.

Additionally, VeriSign stated it’s taking the necessary technical steps to apply for fresh top level domains in the round that opens this year, but it has not yet decided if it will apply for any domains. This suggests the firm will apply to ICANN to be a Registry Services Provider.

The firm stated it will announce the additional product(s) it teased last quarter during May.