Verisign Domain Growth Reaccelerates After Two Slower Quarters

The Tip Desk · October 23, 2026 · 2 min read

The.com and.net base reached 182.5 million registrations, up 6.1% from a year earlier, after 5.1% growth at the end of the second quarter.

VeriSign, Inc. (VRSN), a global provider of internet infrastructure and domain name registry services, ended the third quarter of 2026 with 182.5 million.com and.net registrations, a 6.1% increase from the end of the third quarter of 2025. That year-over-year rate was faster than the 5.1% growth recorded at the end of the second quarter and the 3.7% at the end of the first quarter.

Net additions were 3.36 million domain names in the third quarter, after 3.05 million in the second quarter and 2.54 million in the first. The company processed 13.1 million new.com and.net registrations, compared with 10.6 million a year earlier.

Revenue was $443 million, up 5.7% from the same quarter in 2025, after 6.0% year-over-year growth in the second quarter and 6.6% in the first. Operating income was $296 million, compared with $284 million a year earlier. Diluted earnings were $2.35 a share, versus $2.27 a year earlier.

The company recognized a pre-tax operating loss of $7.5 million related to certain assets held for sale, which decreased diluted EPS by $0.06.

The final.com and.net renewal rate for the second quarter of 2026 was 75.2%, compared with 75.5% for the same quarter of 2025. Renewal rates are not fully measurable until 45 days after the end of the quarter.

Cash flow from operations was $268 million in the third quarter, compared with $308 million a year earlier. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities ended at $476 million, a decrease of $104 million from year-end 2025. Deferred revenues totaled $1.46 billion as of September 30, 2026, an increase of $79 million from year-end 2025.

Verisign repurchased 0.7 million shares for $189 million in the third quarter, leaving $1.36 billion remaining under the share-repurchase program, which has no expiration. On October 19, 2026, the board approved a cash dividend of $0.81 a share, payable November 24, 2026.

Executive Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Jim Bidzos said the company grew the domain name base by 6.1% year-over-year. He said the rollout of the.web top-level domain is on track and that Verisign opened the limited beta phase of Verisign Informed, a high-assurance validation service.