Verisign $VRSN Q4 2016 Earnings LIVE Webcast Feb 9, 4:30pm ET

 $VRSN UP 13.70% Feb 9, 2016 - Feb 8, 2017

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN | verisign.com), earnings call for the fourth quarter and full year 2016: Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017, at 4:30 p.m. ET (US): Listen to LIVE webcast.

The call will also be accessible by direct dial at (888) 676-VRSN (U.S.) or (913) 312-0944 (international), conference ID: Verisign. An audio archive of the call will be available at https://investor.verisign.com/events.cfm.

Q4 2016 Results  (pdf)(press release):  Q4 EPS of $0.92 beat estimates by $0.04. Revenue of $286.27 million (+5.0% Y/Y) beat estimates by $3.3 million (investor.verisign.com).

Financial Highlights

• Verisign ended 2016 with cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $1.8 billion, a decrease of $118 million from year-end 2015.
• Cash flow from operations was $195 million for the fourth quarter of 2016 and $668 million for the full year 2016 compared with $189 million for the same quarter in 2015 and $651 million for the full year 2015.
• Deferred revenues on Dec. 31, 2016, totaled $976 million, an increase of $14 million from year-end 2015.
• During the fourth quarter, Verisign repurchased 2.0 million shares of its common stock for $160 million. During the full year 2016, Verisignrepurchased 7.8 million shares of its common stock for $637 million.
• Effective Feb. 9, 2017, the Board of Directors approved an additional authorization for share repurchases of approximately $641 million of common stock, which brings the total amount to $1 billion authorized and available under Verisign's share repurchase program, which has no expiration.
• For purposes of calculating diluted EPS, the fourth quarter diluted share count included 20.6 million shares related to subordinated convertible debentures, compared with 21.4 million shares for the same quarter in 2015. These represent diluted shares and not shares that have been issued.

Business Highlights

• Verisign ended the fourth quarter with 142.2 million .com and .net domain name registrations in the domain name base, a 1.7 percent increase from the end of the fourth quarter of 2015, and a net decrease of 1.9 million during the fourth quarter of 2016.
• In the fourth quarter, Verisign processed 8.8 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net, as compared to 12.2 million for the same quarter in 2015.
• The final .com and .net renewal rate for the third quarter of 2016 was 73.0 percent compared with 71.9 percent for the same quarter in 2015. Renewal rates are not fully measurable until 45 days after the end of the quarter.

Notes:

• Verisign has received, and is cooperating with a CID (civil investigative demand) from the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with new gTLD .WEB.
• FORM 8-K for Verisign, Q4 2016 Date of Report: February 9, 2017.
• Q4 2016 webcast transcript: VeriSign (VRSN) Q4 2016 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com:

"... as it relates to our becoming the registry operator for .web, on January 18, 2017, the company received a Civil Investigative Demand from the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, requesting certain information related to VeriSign's potential operations of the .web TLD. The CID is not directed at VeriSign's existing registry agreements. As we said at the time of the auction last July, we strongly believe VeriSign is well-positioned to grow and widely distribute .web to provide an additional option to the marketplace, given our proven track record of reliability and stability, and we look forward to explaining our views as we respond to the CID and continue to cooperate with the DOJ."--D. James Bidzos, Verisign President, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of the Board

Earnings Presentation (pdf):

Verisign is the registry operator of the market dominant .COM generic top-level domain (gTLD) as well as gTLD .NET, and provider of other TLD registry services, internet Root Zone Maintainer pursuant to a contract with ICANN, and operates two (A and J) of the internet's 13 authoritative DNS root zone servers, as well as providing internet security services.

See also:

• $VRSN Q3 2016 Results, LIVE Webcast Oct 27 | DomainMondo.com.
• NewsReview: Ruby Glen Appeals .WEB ICANN Case to Ninth Circuit | DomainMondo.com and other posts linked therein re: new gTLD .WEB. 

Also note that Verisign Inc, lost an appeal to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday (Feb 8, 2017), of a case it brought against new gTLD registry operator XYZ.com LLC and its CEO Daniel Negari (see embed below, highlighting added), the Fourth Circuit affirming the District Court's dismissal of Verisign's claims:

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