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The call communicated multiple strong operational and financial wins: record domain base, the largest new registrations since 2021, YoY revenue and EPS growth, robust cash generation and shareholder returns, narrowed and raised guidance for domain base growth, and a long track record of 100% availability and large excess infrastructure capacity. Offsetting items include materially lower first-time renewal rates (mid-40%), uncertainty around the retail impact of the announced .com wholesale price increase, security risks arising from AI that may require additional product investment, and some uncertainty related to the ICANN new gTLD round. On balance, the positive growth, cash returns, and infrastructure reliability materially outweigh the noted challenges, though management will need to monitor renewal cohorts and registrar pricing dynamics.
The company narrowed 2026 guidance to domain name base growth of 3.1%–4.3% and updated full‑year financial guidance of revenue $1.73B–$1.745B and operating income $1.17B–$1.185B; interest and non‑operating items are expected to be a small net expense (up to about $7M), capital expenditures $55M–$65M, and a GAAP effective tax rate of 22%–25%. Management also announced a $0.71 wholesale .com price increase to $10.97 effective 11/01/2026, declared a $0.81 per‑share cash dividend payable 05/27/2026 (record 05/19/2026), noted $556M in cash and equivalents at quarter‑end and $863M of remaining share‑repurchase capacity, and reiterated strong free cash flow generation and domain metrics underpinning the guidance.
Combined .com and .net base reached a record 176.1 million names; domain name base grew by 2.54 million from year-end 2025. New registrations were 11.5 million in Q1 (vs. 10.7 million last quarter and 10.1 million YoY), the largest quarterly new registrations since 2021.
Company expects 2026 renewal rate of 76.3%, up from 75.5% a year ago, reflecting stronger retention and improved renewal characteristics from marketing programs.
Revenue of $429 million in Q1, up 6.6% year-over-year. Diluted EPS of $2.34, up 11.4% YoY and up 4.9% sequentially.
Operating income totaled $294 million, up $22 million or 8.3% YoY, and up 3.1% sequentially, indicating improved operational profitability.
Operating cash flow of $272 million and free cash flow of $265 million for the quarter. Returned over 100% of free cash flow to shareholders in the last 12 months, totaling $1.13 billion via share repurchases and dividends; $863 million remains available under the repurchase program.
Board approved a cash dividend of $0.81 per share payable 05/27/2026 and reiterated intent to pay quarterly dividends subject to Board approval and market conditions.
Management increased and narrowed 2026 domain name base growth guidance to between 3.1% and 4.3%, citing positive early-year trends and marketing program traction.
Extended 100% service availability record approaching 29 years; processes over 600 billion DNS transactions per day (~7 million transactions per second) with multiple orders of magnitude excess capacity and planned infrastructure improvements.
Announced notice of a $0.71 annual wholesale increase for .com (from $10.26 to $10.97) effective 11/01/2026 — the first allowable increase since the February 2024 notice.
Revenue guidance for 2026 raised to $1.73 billion–$1.745 billion; operating income guidance $1.17 billion–$1.185 billion; CapEx guidance maintained at $55 million–$65 million; GAAP tax rate guidance 22%–25%.
Good day, everyone. Welcome to VeriSign, Inc.'s first quarter 2026 earnings call. Today's conference is being recorded. Recording of this call is not permitted unless preauthorized. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. David Atchley, Vice President of Investor Relations and Corporate Treasurer. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, operator. Welcome to VeriSign, Inc.'s first quarter 2026 earnings call. Joining me are Jim Bidzos, Executive Chairman, President and CEO, and John Callis, Executive Vice President and CFO. This call and presentation are being webcast from the Investor Relations website, which is available under About VeriSign, Inc. on verisign.com. There, you will also find our earnings release. At the end of this call, the presentation will be available on that site and, within a few hours, the replay of the call will be posted. Financial results in our earnings release are unaudited, and our remarks include forward-looking statements that are subject to the risks and uncertainties that we discuss in detail in our documents filed with the SEC, specifically the most recent reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q.
VeriSign, Inc. does not update financial performance or guidance during the quarter unless it is done through a public disclosure. The financial results in today's call and the matters we will be discussing include GAAP results and two non-GAAP measures used by VeriSign, Inc.: Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. GAAP-to-non-GAAP reconciliation information is appended to the slide presentation, which can be found on the Investor Relations secti...