Here’s Why Weitz Multi-Cap Equity Fund Exited VeriSign (VRSN)

Weitz Investment Management, an investment management firm, released its “Multi-Cap Equity Fund” fourth-quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The fund’s Institutional Class returned 15.80% in the calendar year compared to +23.81% for the Russell 3000. The fund returned -0.57% for the fourth quarter compared to +2.63% for the index. The fund’s all-cap strategy focuses on investing in businesses of all sizes to broaden opportunities and protect against market leadership shifts. In addition, you can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to find out its best picks for 2024.

In its fourth quarter 2024 investor letter, Weitz Multi-Cap Equity Fund emphasized stocks such as VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN). VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) offers internet infrastructure and domain name registry services. The one-month return of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) was 9.32%, and its shares gained 20.39% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On February 27, 2025, VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) stock closed at $235.03 per share with a market capitalization of $22.234 billion.

Weitz Multi-Cap Equity Fund stated the following regarding VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“We also exited our position in VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) after a brief (for us) holding period. Our conviction remains strong that Verisign is a very high-quality business, but near-term uncertainty over how and when its principle “dot com” registry business can return to volume growth led us to pursue potentially more attractive opportunities.”

VeriSign, Inc. (VRSN): Among Renaissance Technologies Portfolio's Top Stock Picks

A close-up view of an engineer deploying a new piece of internet infrastructure.

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 41 hedge fund portfolios held VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) at the end of the fourth quarter compared to 39 in the third quarter. VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) generated revenue of $1.557 billion in 2024, up 4.3% from 2023 and in the fourth quarter the company’s revenue increased 3.9% year-over-year to $$395 million. While we acknowledge the potential of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we discussed VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) and shared the list of stock picks from the Renaissance Technologies portfolio. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.