How domain name stocks fared in stock market rout

Not well.

Stock markets were up nearly 10% on Friday, and it was a sigh of relief in a tumultuous period.

Stocks have been pummelled as the world goes into hiding over fears of the COVID-19 outbreak. The Dow 30 is down 22% since its peak on February 12. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ are both down 20% since their peaks on February 19.

And those numbers looked a lot worse the day before.

Here’s how domain name stocks have fared from their 2020 peak through Friday’s close:

Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN): Verisign is off 16% from its high on February 6. It makes sense that the stock wouldn’t be as hard hit as the overall market. It delivers consistent, subscription-based revenue that is likely to go up as it’s allowed to raise prices.

Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX): Shares in the company that owns Enom have dropped 29% from their peak on January 16.

GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY): GoDaddy’s value has fallen 30% between February 14 and now. I’m curious about what impact the economic and social changes of the novel coronavirus will have on domain name registrars and hosting companies.

Endurance (NASDAQ: EIGI): It’s a demoralizing time at Endurance, a rollup of domain name and hosting companies. Shares peaked this year on February 6 and have fallen by 57% since then. Is it overdone? Endurance’s management thinks so; it authorized a $40 million share buyback plan on March 10.

CentralNic (London AIM: CNIC): I hesitated to include CentralNic and the next two companies in this post. They are thinly traded so changes might not reflect the current market. But CentralNic’s shares are down 24% from a peak on January 2.

MMX (London AIM: MMX): New top level domain operator MMX (Minds + Machines) has seen its stock fall 25% from its peak on February 7.

NameSilo (OTC: URLOF): Shares in this registrar are down 50% since January 9. You have to give NameSilo some props for this well-timed sale of bitcoin, though.

This might present a buying opportunity if you think the world and market will rebound soon. I do not own individual shares in publicly-traded domain name companies to avoid a conflict of interest. Mutual funds I own, including index funds, do hold some of these stocks.