Head to Head Survey: VeriSign (VRSN) & Its Peers

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) is one of 271 public companies in the “IT Services” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare VeriSign to related businesses based on the strength of its valuation, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends and profitability.

Profitability

This table compares VeriSign and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
VeriSign	49.06%	-38.40%	59.95%
VeriSign Competitors	-191.32%	-32.18%	-8.63%

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares VeriSign and its competitors revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
VeriSign	$1.66 billion	$825.70 million	33.47
VeriSign Competitors	$3.24 billion	$227.67 million	-24.84

VeriSign’s competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than VeriSign. VeriSign is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

VeriSign pays an annual dividend of $3.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. VeriSign pays out 34.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “IT Services” companies pay a dividend yield of 2.3% and pay out 70.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for VeriSign and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
VeriSign	0	2	4	0	2.67
VeriSign Competitors	1994	5657	9482	342	2.47

VeriSign presently has a consensus price target of $352.00, suggesting a potential upside of 13.08%. As a group, “IT Services” companies have a potential upside of 27.68%. Given VeriSign’s competitors higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe VeriSign has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Volatility & Risk

VeriSign has a beta of 0.66, suggesting that its share price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, VeriSign’s competitors have a beta of 2.14, suggesting that their average share price is 114% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.9% of VeriSign shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 36.4% of shares of all “IT Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of VeriSign shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 20.4% of shares of all “IT Services” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

VeriSign beats its competitors on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

VeriSign Company Profile

VeriSign, Inc. operates critical internet infrastructure, best known for managing the domain-name registries for .com and .net. It provides the systems that allow domain names in these extensions to be registered and resolved through the Domain Name System, working with registrars that serve businesses and individuals. The company also provides registry services for other domain extensions and supports the security and stability of the internet’s naming infrastructure. Its services are used globally through a network of registrars and other internet service providers.