Financial Comparison: VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) versus Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD)
by Sarita Garza · The Markets DailyVeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN – Get Free Report) and Applied Digital (NASDAQ:APLD – Get Free Report) are both technology companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, valuation, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and risk.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
92.9% of VeriSign shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 65.7% of Applied Digital shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of VeriSign shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 9.5% of Applied Digital shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Profitability
This table compares VeriSign and Applied Digital’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| VeriSign | 49.06% | -38.40% | 59.95% |
| Applied Digital | -51.28% | -27.21% | -5.23% |
Valuation & Earnings
This table compares VeriSign and Applied Digital”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| VeriSign | $1.66 billion | 16.62 | $825.70 million | $9.30 | 33.01 |
| Applied Digital | $611.31 million | 9.10 | -$244.00 million | ($1.64) | -11.22 |
VeriSign has higher revenue and earnings than Applied Digital. Applied Digital is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than VeriSign, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Risk & Volatility
VeriSign has a beta of 0.69, meaning that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Applied Digital has a beta of 5.99, meaning that its stock price is 499% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for VeriSign and Applied Digital, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| VeriSign | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2.67 |
| Applied Digital | 2 | 2 | 12 | 3 | 2.84 |
VeriSign currently has a consensus price target of $352.00, suggesting a potential upside of 14.67%. Applied Digital has a consensus price target of $59.75, suggesting a potential upside of 224.76%. Given Applied Digital’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Applied Digital is more favorable than VeriSign.
Summary
VeriSign beats Applied Digital on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About VeriSign
VeriSign, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides domain name registry services and internet infrastructure that enables internet navigation for various recognized domain names worldwide. The company enables the security, stability, and resiliency of internet infrastructure and services, including providing root zone maintainer services, operating two of thirteen internet root servers; and offering registration services and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net domains, which supports global e-commerce. It operates directory for .name and .cc; and back-end systems for .edu, domain names. VeriSign, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia.
About Applied Digital
Applied Digital Corporation designs, develops, and operates datacenters in North America. Its datacenters provide digital infrastructure solutions to the high-performance computing industry. The company also provides artificial intelligence cloud services, high performance computing datacenter hosting, and crypto datacenter hosting services. The company was formerly known as Applied Blockchain, Inc. and changed its name to Applied Digital Corporation in November 2022. Applied Digital Corporation is based in Dallas, Texas.