…but some are beating the market.
It’s been a wild year for asset prices and stocks of domain name-related companies are no exception.
Domain companies are tech companies, so the best comparison is the NASDAQ, which is down 32% YTD through yesterday’s close. The broader markets are down about 18%.
Here’s how domain companies performed from the close at the end of last year to yesterday’s close:
NameSilo (Pnk: URLOF) down 6% – This is a very thinly traded stock
CentralNic (London: AIM) down 7% – CentralNic’s ad business is helping it grow quickly. It has been rewarded with just a slight decline in stock price this year.
GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) down 12% – It’s beating the market despite a double-digit stock decline and currency challenges.
Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) down 29% – The base of .com domain names has declined, but the company is benefitting from price hikes on each .com registered or renewed.
Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) down 46% – Its domain business is stagnant but throws off cash. It continues to reinvest in fiber and its telco billing technology.
Clarivate (NYSE: CLVT) down 61% – This IP tech rollup won’t be on the list much longer because it’s selling its MarkMonitor domain division.
Tucows -46%, Yikes!
Verisign is greedy and has buried the domain industry with their “price hikes”. In the long run it will not benefit them even $0.01! Domainers are giving up their domains now by the droves. I have dropped over 500 in just the past month alone. Good luck with that stock!! Wait until next quarter, maybe DOWN another -20-30% and they have no one to blame but themselves. Greedy pricks!!
Things are settling down after the pandemic surge in registrations. While you can question what they are investing in, I think Tucows strategy of using relatively stable domain revenue to fund other things is probably smart in the long run.