BancAmerica Robertson Stephens Initiates Coverage on VeriSign
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- BancAmerica Robertson Stephens research analyst John Powers initiated coverage today on VeriSign (VRSN) with a Long Term Attractive rating.
Based in Mountain View, California, VeriSign is the leading provider of digital certificate solutions and infrastructure needed by companies, government agencies, trading partners and individuals to conduct trusted and secure communications and commerce over the Internet.
VeriSign's digital certificates can be considered the driver's license for the information technology highway. Much like a driver's license assures an individual's identity and authorizes driving by today's standards, VeriSign's digital certificates and infrastructure assure an individual user's and application's identity for trusted Internet communications and commerce. The company estimates it has issued more than 2 million individual digital IDs and over 40,000 digital IDS for Web sites.
''We believe VeriSign is one of the most exciting Internet companies today. The company's technology and products are on the cutting edge of secure infrastructure technology,'' said Powers. Looking forward, he sees fundamental growth for VeriSign coming from the continued Internet expansion and need to assure trusted Internet communications and commerce. Specifically, he expects VeriSign to benefit from strong growth in global e-commerce.
Powers believes the company can achieve revenue growth of more than 100% year-over-year and expects total revenue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 113% through the year 2000.
Powers' EPS estimate for 1998 is ($0.81). His EPS estimates for 1999 and 2000 are ($0.03) and $0.45, respectively.
BancAmerica Robertson Stephens is a leading international investment banking firm focused on emerging growth companies. The firm's 46 senior research analysts cover over 591 companies.
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