Here’s Why Verisign Stock Has Underperformed The S&P Since 2020

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Verisign Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) stock price has lost 19% from around $216 at 2020 end to $174 currently, primarily due to unfavorable changes in its P/S multiple. During this period, the company witnessed a 13% rise in revenues, and a 4% drop in the outstanding share count positively impacting the company’s revenue per share. Despite this, the company’s stock price has dropped, and it has underperformed the S&P 500, which returned around 10% over the same period.

In our interactive dashboard, Why Verisign Stock Moved: VRSN Stock Has Lost 19% Since 2020, we break down the factors behind this move.

VRSN’s Total Revenue has risen 13% from $1.3 billion in FY 2020 to $1.4 billion currently

• Verisign’s total revenue has risen steadily from $1.3 billion in FY ’21 to $1.4 billion on an LTM basis.
• Verisign operates a diverse array of network infrastructure and is a leading domain name provider. The company also offers a wide range of security services.
• The company operates in only one reportable segment and sales have been rising steadily every year over the past decade.
• For additional details about VRSN’s revenues and comparison to peers, see Verisign Revenue Comparison

Revenue per share increased 19% from $10.99 in FY 2020 to $13.03 currently

• VRSN’s revenue rose from $1.3 billion in FY 2020 to $1.4 billion currently, and the outstanding share count dropped from 115.1 million in FY 2020 to around 110.1 million currently.
• Due to this, RPS has risen 19% from $10.99 in FY ’20 to $13.03 currently.

Price-To-Sales (P/S) multiple for VRSN rose initially from 18.7x in 2020 to 20.9x by 2021 end, but has pulled back to 13.4x currently, much lower than its 2020 level

• VRSN’s P/S multiple rose strongly to around 20.9x by late 2021, on the back of rising investor expectations surrounding increased demand for its products, leading to a rise in the company’s sales.
• However, due to the increased economic uncertainty weighing on the broader markets, the P/S multiple has pulled back, currently standing at around 13.4x.
• For additional details about the company stock returns and comparison to peers, see Verisign Stock Return Comparison.

With stock prices falling precipitously across sectors, we may be heading toward a bear market for the first time since March 2020, when the Covid-19 outbreak triggered a market crash. We capture key trends in the Dow during and after major market crashes in our interactive dashboard analysis, ‘Market Crashes Compared.’

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