VeriSign 2nd-quarter profit rises, meets analyst expectations

VeriSign 2Q profit rises, meets analyst view

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Internet technology company VeriSign Inc. said Monday that its second-quarter profit rose as revenue from its domain-name registration business rose.

For the April-June period, VeriSign earned $35.2 million, 19 cents per share, compared with a profit of $34.9 million, or 18 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

When excluding one-time items, VeriSign earned 24 cents per share, matching the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue rose 9 percent to $168.7 million; analysts were looking for $166.5 million. Most of this came from VeriSign’s naming services business, which manages traffic to websites with addresses that end in “.com” and “.net” and makes money by registering those domain names. The unit reported 9 percent growth year over year.

VeriSign said it was counting revenue from its authentication services business as “discontinued operations,” since it is in the process of selling the unit to Symantec Corp. for $1.28 billion.

VeriSign said it gained 7.9 million new domain name registrations during the quarter, which represents 13 percent growth.

VeriSign shares rose 19 cents in after-hours trading to $28.19, after finishing regular trading down 15 cents at $28.