VeriSign : Q1-2026 Earnings Slides Final

Published: 2026-04-23 17:28:31 ET VRSN

Published on 04/23/2026 at 05:28 pm EDT

Q1 2026 Earnings Conference Call April 23, 2026

Agenda

Introduction Business Highlights Capital Allocation

Financial Performance Guidance

Summary / Q&A / Appendix

Introduction

Our Mission

Verisign enables the world to connect online with reliability and confidence, anytime, anywhere

We remain fully focused

on operating secure, stable, and reliable internet infrastructure, upon which the world depends

Our critical internet infrastructure and the expertise of our teams enable us to reliably and accurately provide the critical DNS navigation service that people around the world rely on more than ever for commerce, work, education, healthcare, and much more

We continue to enhance our critical internet infrastructure, services and capabilities

Verisign's high-assurance DNS infrastructure, with an unparalleled 28-year track record of uninterrupted resolution for .com and .net, processes nearly 600 billion authoritative name server transactions per day on average and growing, backed by our validated, cryptographically assured provisioning systems.

Business Highlights: Domain Name Base

Domain Name Base(1)

176.1

Net Change

+2.54

163.6 million .com names and 12.4 million .net names

1. The domain name base as presented here is the active zone plus the number of domain names that are registered but not configured for use in the respective Top-Level Domain zone file plus the number of domain names that are in a client or server hold status. The sum of the .com and .net domain names may not match the total domain name base due to rounding.

Business Highlights

New Name Registrations

11.5

million

Millions

vs 10.1 million Q1-25, +14.4% Y/Y

Preliminary Renewal Rate(1)

76.3%

vs 75.0% Q4-25

vs 75.5% Q1-25

Q2 Expiring Names

vs 37.6 million Q2-25

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

1. Renewal rates are not fully measurable until 45 days after the end of the quarter. This guidance is based on historical and current market trends.

Capital Allocation

Q1 Share Repurchases

$214

million; 0.9 million shares

Dividends(1)

$74

Millions

million

Free Cash Flow(2)

$265

million

Authorized for Repurchases

Cash and Investments(3)

The company initiated a quarterly dividend of $0.77 per share, distributed in May, August, and November of 2025. In February 2026, the dividend was increased by 5.2% to $0.81 per share.

Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure defined as cash flow from operating activities, less capital expenditures. See reconciliation of operating cash flow to free cash flow in slide appendix for more detail.

Cash and Investments includes cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. 7

Financial Performance

Revenue

$429

Operating Income

$294

million; +6.6% Y/Y

million; +8.3% Y/Y

Operating Cash Flow

Free Cash Flow(1)

Earnings per Share

1. Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure defined as cash flow from operating activities, less capital expenditures. See reconciliation of operating cash flow to free cash flow in slide appendix for more detail.

Guidance: Full Year 2026

Guidance(1)(2)

Prior

Domain Base Growth

3.1% to 4.3%

1.5% to 3.5%

Revenue

$1.730B to $1.745B

$1.715B to $1.735B

Operating Income

$1.170B to $1.185B

$1.160B to $1.180B

Interest expense and non-Operating Income, Net expense

$57M to $67M

Unchanged

Capital Expenditures

$55M to $65M

Unchanged

Effective Tax Rate 22% to 25% Unchanged

Our guidance is based on expectations about the outlook of our business in addition to our financial projections for interest income and expense.

Financial forecasts and guidance are forward looking statements, and actual results may vary for any number of reasons including those mentioned in our most recent 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K filings with the SEC.

Summary

Our strategic framework:

Protect

Grow Manage

has been effective and

instrumental in creating and upholding value for internet users, customers and shareholders

Delivered solid, consistent financial results

Generated $1,048 million in Free Cash Flow in the four quarters ending Q1-26

Returned a total of $1,132 million to shareholders of which $843 million were share repurchases and $289 million dividends in the four quarters ending Q1-2026

We will continue to invest in our critical internet infrastructure while meeting the rigorous standards of performance and availability governed by our agreements with ICANN

Q&A Appendix

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Verisign provides quarterly and annual financial statements that are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Along with this information, management typically discloses and discusses certain non-GAAP financial measures on investor conference calls and related events. The non-GAAP financial measures included in this presentation are Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow.

Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure and is calculated in accordance with the terms of the indentures governing Verisign's 2027 senior notes. Adjusted EBITDA refers to net income before interest expense, taxes, depreciation and amortization, stock-based compensation, and unrealized gain / loss on hedging agreements.

Free cash flow is a non-GAAP financial measure defined as cash flow from operating activities, less capital expenditures.

Management believes that these non-GAAP financial measures supplement the GAAP financial measures by providing investors with additional information that allows them to have a clearer picture of Verisign's operations and financial performance and the comparability of Verisign's operating results from period to period. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not meant to be considered in isolation nor as a substitute for financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP.

The tables herein include a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable financial measures reported in accordance with GAAP for the given periods.

Reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA & Free Cash Flow

(In Millions)

Four Quarters Ended March 31, 2026

Net Income

$

840.9

Interest expense

75.6

Income tax expense

248.6

Depreciation and amortization

28.7

Stock-based compensation

71.3

Unrealized loss on hedging agreements

1.1

Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA $ 1,266.2

(In Millions) Q1-22 Q2-22 Q3-22 Q4-22 Q1-23 Q2-23 Q3-23 Q4-23

Cash Flow from

Operating Activities

$ 207.1

$ 144.9

$ 262.2

$ 216.9

$ 259.0

$ 145.3

$ 245.3

$ 204.2

Acquisition of property and equipment, net

(6.6)

(6.2)

(6.9)

(7.7)

(5.7)

(6.5)

(28.6)

(5.1)

Total Free Cash Flow

$ 200.5

$ 138.7

$ 255.3

$ 209.2

$ 253.4

$ 138.8

$ 216.7

$ 199.1

(In Millions)

Q1-24

Q2-24

Q3-24

Q4-24

Q1-25

Q2-25

Q3-25

Q4-25

Q1-26

Cash Flow from

Operating Activities $ 257.3

Acquisition of

$ 160.4

$ 253.3

$ 231.5

$ 291.3

$ 202.5

$ 307.7

$ 289.6

$ 272.4

property and

equipment, net (3.8)

(9.1)

(5.6)

(9.5)

(5.8)

(7.9)

(4.6)

(4.5)

(7.2)

Total Free Cash Flow $ 253.5

$ 151.3

$ 247.7

$ 222.0

$ 285.5

$ 194.6

$ 303.0

$ 285.1 $ 265.1

1. The sum of the amounts in the columns and rows may not match the total amounts shown due to rounding.

Classification of Stock-Based Compensation

(In Millions)

March 31, 2026

Three Months Ended December 31, 2025

March 31, 2025

Cost of revenues

$ 2.3

$ 2.2

$

2.1

Research and development

3.0

2.8

2.8

Selling, general and administrative

13.8

12.9

12.6

Total stock-based compensation expense

$ 19.1

$ 17.9

$ 17.5

© 2026 VeriSign, Inc. All rights reserved. VERISIGN and other trademarks, service marks, and designs are registered or unregistered trademarks of VeriSign, Inc. and its subsidiaries in the United States and in foreign countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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Disclaimer

VeriSign Inc. published this content on April 23, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on April 23, 2026 at 21:19 UTC.