Earnings Preview: VeriSign

VeriSign (VRSN) is expected to report Q3 earnings after market close Thursday (Nov. 6) with a conference call scheduled for 5:00 pm ET.

Guidance

The consensus estimate is 26c for EPS and $238.98M for revenue, according to First Call.

Analyst Views

Deutsche Bank expects VeriSign to report Q3 results that are generally in-line with its expectations of 25c and $236M. It seems to Deutsche that investor's expectations around DNS and SSL trends are quite muted given the macro environment and data around Internet growth and e-commerce trends. Deutsche anticipates DNS net adds of 1.8M for the quarter, but believes buy-side consensus expectations are below this metric. Given the deteriorating macro conditions, the firm expects management to be generally cautious on the overall outlook, but generally in-line with consensus expectations of $248M in revenue and 29c EPS.

However, Deutsche continues to believe VeriSign's businesses are better insulated than most from this economic slowdown. Deutsche thinks progress is being made on the CEO search and asset divestitures, although uncertainty exists on each.

Key issues for the conference call: Forward guidance; comments on the CEO search progress; and progress of their $1B share repurchase plan.