DOW JONES NEWSWIRES VeriSign Inc. (VRSN) swung to a fourth-quarter profit following prior-year losses from discontinued operations while core operations strengthened. But shares fell 3% to $22.72 in after-hours trading as the earnings fell short of Wall Street's expectations. The pace of the stock's rise has been less than half that of the Nasdaq Composite Index in the past year. The company has essentially finished shedding its low-growth businesses to focus on Web certificates and its Internet registry. However, the core Internet registry business faces renewed antitrust concerns after a federal appeals court in June reversed the dismissal of a suit filed by a nonprofit group of domain-name stakeholders. VeriSign reported earnings of $92 million, or 48 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $95.9 million, or 50 cents a share. Excluding items such as the prior-year losses, earnings rose to 31 cents from 28 cents. Revenue increased 5.6% to $262.7 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of 34 cents on revenue of $261 million. Active Internet names rose 7%, while Web certificates were up 9%. -By Jay Miller and Kathy Shwiff, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2355; jay.miller@dowjones.com
