Baird does not see VeriSign contract risk from think tank letter

Baird analyst Rob Oliver does not see U.S. government contract risk for VeriSign after the American Economic Liberty Project called on agencies to “closely examine the contract between ICANN and VeriSign” ahead of the November renewal date. Noise around VeriSign contracts is not new, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The letter states that .com is the “gold standard” for domains, but many non-gold-standard domains sell at substantially higher amounts, the firm points out. Baird says VeriSign “has real challenges at the moment,” including lackluster .com domain growth and China largely pulling away from .com. However, it does not believe investors need to add the .com contract to that list. It keeps a Neutral rating on the name with a $200 price target.