Domain stocks rebound with the market

Many domain name companies are faring well during the pandemic.

On March 14, I wrote about how domain name stocks fared during the pandemic market crash up through the close on March 13. The market wasn’t done capitulating, but stocks have rebounded nicely since then. The NASDAQ is up 17% since I wrote that story, the Dow is up 4% and the S&P 8%. Still, all three of the indexes are off their 2020 highs.

No domain names stocks have returned to their high prices of earlier this year, but two are up for the year: Verisign and GoDaddy.

Here’s a look at how domain stocks have fared this year.

Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN): Verisign is up 10% for the year and is down just 2% from its high earlier this year. .Com has proven resilient in the face of the pandemic, even getting a lift from Covid-related registrations and businesses transitioning online. It doesn’t hurt that ICANN agreed to let it raise prices 7% a year for the next four years.

Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX): Shares in the company that owns Enom have dropped 16% from their peak on January 16 and are down 10% on the year. The price has rebounded 18% from when I published the earlier story.

GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY): Go Daddy-O! Shares have surged 37% since March 13 and are up 11% on the year. They are down just 4% from their 2020 high.

Endurance (NASDAQ: EIGI): Shares are down 48% on the year and 53% from their 2020 high but are up 7% from the close on March 13.

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 now even for the year and off just 4% from their high at the beginning of the year. The stock is up 27% since the last story.

MMX (London AIM: MMX): New top level domain operator MMX (Minds + Machines) has seen its stock fall 26% from its peak on February 7. It’s down 8% on the year and down 1% since the last story.

NameSilo (OTC: URLOF): Shares in this registrar are down 54% since January 9. The stock is down 50% on the year and has dropped a further 9% since March 13.

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.