Verisign reported its fourth quarter (Q4/2021) and full year (2021) results.
Here are the financial highlights:
Verisign ended 2021 with cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities of $1.21 billion, an increase of $39 million from year-end 2020. Cash flow from operations was $206 million for the fourth quarter of 2021 and $807 million for the full year of 2021 compared with $195 million for the same quarter in 2020 and $730 million for the full year 2020.
Deferred revenues as of Dec. 31, 2021, totaled $1.15 billion, an increase of $90 million from year-end 2020. During the fourth quarter of 2021, Verisign repurchased 0.8 million shares of its common stock for $182 million. During the full year of 2021, Verisign repurchased 3.3 million shares of its common stock for $700 million.
Effective Feb. 10, 2022 the Board of Directors approved an additional authorization for share repurchases of approximately $705 million of common stock, which brings the total amount to $1.0 billion authorized and available under Verisign’s share repurchase program, which has no expiration.
Meanwhile, domain related numbers are as follows:
Verisign ended the fourth quarter of 2021 with 173.4 million .com and .net domain name registrations in the domain name base, a 5.0 percent increase from the end of the fourth quarter of 2020, and a net increase of 1.37 million registrations during the fourth quarter of 2021.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, Verisign processed 10.6 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net, as compared to 10.5 million for the same quarter in 2020. The final .com and .net renewal rate for the third quarter of 2021 was 75.0 percent compared to 73.7 percent for the same quarter in 2020. 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 .com domain name registration from $8.39 to $8.97, effective Sept. 1, 2022.
