Regulatory filings show that Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway further increased its stake in Internet domain name service provider VeriSign in the last days of 2024. Documents show that Berkshire purchased 76,487 shares of VeriSign stock through its insurance subsidiary Geico over the past few days, spending a total of $15.6 million.
As of Monday's close, Berkshire held a total of more than 13.27 million VeriSign shares, worth more than $2.7 billion.
Prior to this, in the six trading days ended December 24, Berkshire purchased a total of 377,736 VeriSign shares for $73.95 million.
Berkshire Hathaway is very familiar with VeriSign, having first purchased shares in the company more than a decade ago in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Analysis shows that among S&P 500 companies, VeriSign ranks very high on various profit margin indicators.
In the third quarter of this year, VeriSign's gross profit margin was 88.02%, ranking 11th among S&P 500 companies, operating profit margin was 71.25%, ranking 6th, and net income profit margin was 51.54%, ranking 7th. All three margin measures improved from a year ago.
VeriSign became famous during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s because it was the go-to place to register domain names for websites, controlling the registration of domain names such as ".com," ".net," ".cc" and ".name." Buffett didn't just buy a stock, he bought an integral part of the backbone of the Internet.
Since going public on January 30, 1998, VeriSign stock has experienced a roller coaster ride. The stock rose 131.7% in 1998 and surged a record 1,191.8% in 1999, reaching its pre-dot-com bubble closing high of $253 on February 29, 2000.
In 2021, the stock once again surpassed its dot-com bubble-era highs, closing at $255.93 on December 29 of that year.
As of Tuesday's close, the stock was trading at $206.96, up just 0.3% in the past year. The S&P 500 is up 24% in 2024.