VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) reported second quarter EPS of $1.79. This was $0.03 better than the analyst estimate of $1.76. Revenue was $372M versus the consensus estimate of $371.86M. The did announce a .net price hike, $9.92 to $10.91 effective 2/1/2024.

Financial Highlights

• Verisign ended the second quarter of 2023 with cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $936 million, a decrease of $45 million from year-end 2022.
• Cash flow from operations was $145 million for the second quarter of 2023, unchanged from the same quarter of 2022.
• Deferred revenues as of June 30, 2023 totaled $1.26 billion, an increase of $41 million from year-end 2022.
• During the second quarter of 2023, Verisign repurchased 1.0 million shares of its common stock for an aggregate cost of $220 million.
• Effective July 27, 2023 the Board of Directors approved an additional authorization for share repurchases of approximately $1.14 billion of common stock, which brings the total amount to $1.5 billion authorized and available under Verisign’s share repurchase program, which has no expiration.
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  Business Highlights
• On June 30, 2023, Verisign announced the renewal of the .net Registry Agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), pursuant to which Verisign will remain the sole registry operator for the .net registry through June 30, 2029.
• Verisign ended the second quarter of 2023 with 174.4 million .com and .net domain name registrations in the domain name base, a 0.1 percent increase from the end of the second quarter of 2022, and a net decrease of 0.32 million domain names during the second quarter of 2023.
• During the second quarter of 2023, Verisign processed 10.2 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net, as compared to 10.1 million for the same quarter of 2022.
• The final .com and .net renewal rate for the first quarter of 2023 was 75.5 percent compared to 75.9 percent for the same quarter of 2022. Renewal rates are not fully measurable until 45 days after the end of the quarter.
• Verisign announces that it will increase the annual registry-level wholesale fee for each new and renewal .net domain name registration from $9.92 to $10.91, effective Feb. 1, 2024.

Read the full earnings report here