Shares of VeriSign (VRSN) is down 6.5% in pre-market trading at the time of writing. Yesterday, the company disclosed that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) had sold 4.3 million VRSN shares for $1.23 billion. The one-third stock sale reduced Berkshire’s holdings in VeriSign from 14.2% to 9.6%. The investment conglomerate may sell a further 515,032 shares of VeriSign in the future.
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VeriSign is an internet infrastructure and domain name registry service provider. The company filed a prospectus supplement for the secondary sale of 4.815 million common shares by Berkshire’s affiliates. The offering was priced at $285 per share, much lower than the current trading price of VRSN stock. VeriSign did not sell any of its own shares in the offering and will not receive any proceeds from the sale.
History of Berkshire’s Stake in VeriSign
Under Buffett’s leadership, Berkshire first built its stake in VeriSign in 2012 and had been accumulating shares as recently as January 2025. As of March 31, 2025, Berkshire held 13.29 million shares of VeriSign stock. Before the stock sale, Berkshire’s stake in VeriSign was valued at $4.07 billion. Berkshire’s timing of VeriSign’s stock sale was perfect since VRSN stock gained 6.7% in the last two days following the company’s solid Q2 beat-and-raise results.
Berkshire’s affiliates sold about a third of their VeriSign holdings, reducing the stake to below 10%. This implies that Berkshire will no longer be required to publicly report its purchase or sale of VeriSign’s shares. The sale price of $285 represented a roughly 7% discount to VeriSign’s closing price of $305.98 on July 28. The remaining shares held by Berkshire have a lockup period of one year.
Berkshire and its affiliates have realized handsome long-term appreciation gains from the sale of VeriSign stock. For reference, VRSN stock traded at nearly one-sixth of its current trading price when Buffett purchased shares in 2012.
Why Does Buffett Love VeriSign Stock?
VRSN stock has gained over 48% so far this year, backed by a solid business model. VeriSign does not sell or market domains directly to customers, but earns revenue every time a .com or .net domain is purchased. Additionally, it benefits from a built-in price increase agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), subject to certain conditions. It’s no wonder that Buffett has favored VeriSign stock and remains a long-term holder of the company’s shares.
Is VRSN a Good Buy?
On TipRanks, VRSN stock has a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on two Buy ratings. Also, the average VeriSign price target of $335 implies 9.5% upside potential from current levels.
