Summary
GoDaddy's fiscal 2024 first quarter, ended March 31, 2024, delivered revenue of $1,108.5 million, up 7.0% from the prior-year quarter. Operating income rose 148.4% to $175.9 million. Net income rose 748.8% to $401.5 million. Operating margin rose 9.0 percentage points to 15.9%. The net income figure includes a non-routine, non-cash benefit to income taxes related to the conversion of the Desert Newco, LLC subsidiary from a partnership to a disregarded entity. It also reflects restructuring and other charges. Those items make the profit growth less clean than the headline number suggests.
Non-GAAP results and cash generation were strong. Normalized EBITDA was $313.0 million, up 25.4%, with a 28.2% margin. That margin exceeded the first quarter guidance of 27%. Free cash flow was $327.4 million, up 26.3%. Operating cash flow was $297.2 million, up 10.0%. Capital expenditures were $4.4 million, down 80.7%. Total bookings were $1,312.7 million, up 9.5%. Annualized recurring revenue was $3,772.6 million, up 6.5%. Applications and Commerce ARR grew 13% to $1.5 billion, while Core ARR grew 3% to $2.3 billion. Total customers at period end were 20,995, and average revenue per user was $206, up 4.6%. Deferred revenue was $2,174.4 million, up 6.4%. Remaining performance obligations were $3,017.3 million, up 6.3%.
The business mix continued to shift toward higher-growth products. Applications and Commerce segment EBITDA was $161.9 million, up 22.3%, while Core Platform segment EBITDA was $216.7 million, up 14.7%. The GoDaddy Airo experience began rolling out to the existing 21 million customer base in March. Management also implemented restructuring efforts to reduce future operating expenses and improve cash flows, including a reduction in force impacting approximately 180 employees. Year-to-date through April 30, 2024, GoDaddy repurchased 2.8 million shares for $345.6 million, at an average price of $121.49. Cumulatively, those repurchases represent an approximate 22% reduction in fully diluted shares from those outstanding at the inception of the current $4.0 billion buyback authorization. Net debt stood at $3.2 billion as of March 31, 2024.
Guidance points to steady growth. For the second quarter ending June 30, 2024, GoDaddy expects total revenue of $1.10 billion to $1.12 billion, representing 6% year-over-year growth at the midpoint. Within total revenue, second quarter A&C revenue growth is expected in the low- to mid-teens and Core revenue growth in the low single digits. It expects second quarter NEBITDA margin of approximately 28%. For the full year 2024, the company raised its revenue outlook to $4.50 billion to $4.56 billion, representing 6.5% growth at the midpoint. Full-year NEBITDA margin is expected to be approximately 29%, with fourth quarter margin of approximately 31%. Full-year unlevered free cash flow is expected to be at least $1.4 billion, up 12%, and full-year free cash flow is expected to be at least $1.2 billion, up 11%.
Risks remain. The company cites macroeconomic conditions, competition, interest rates, foreign currency fluctuations, and execution of restructuring and share repurchases. It also notes a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting that it is working to remediate. The guidance is non-GAAP, and GoDaddy does not provide reconciliations from non-GAAP guidance to GAAP equivalents. The quarter's GAAP net income was heavily influenced by the tax benefit, so investors will watch whether operating momentum can carry the profit story without that boost.
Forecast
Reported figures
GAAP, from SEC filings| Metric | Q1 FY2024 | Q4 FY2023 | QoQ | Q1 FY2023 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $1.11B | $1.10B | +0.7% | $1.04B | +7.0% |
| General & administrative | $91.7M | $95.6M | -4.1% | $94.1M | -2.6% |
| Total operating expenses | $932.6M | $910.4M | +2.4% | $965.2M | -3.4% |
| Operating income (loss) | $175.9M | $189.9M | -7.4% | $70.8M | +148.4% |
| Operating margin | 15.9% | 17.3% | -1.4 pp | 6.8% | +9.0 pp |
| Net income (loss) | $401.5M | $1.11B | -64.0% | $47.4M | +747.0% |
| Net margin | 36.2% | 101.3% | -65.0 pp | 4.6% | +31.6 pp |
| Customers | 2 | — | — | 3 | -33.3% |
Risks
GoDaddy disclosed a material weakness in the design of controls related to accounting for income taxes and related disclosures as of December 31, 2023, and concluded internal control over financial reporting was not effective. Failure to remediate could impair timely and accurate financial reporting and pressure the stock price.
The company faces ongoing FTC Civil Investigative Demands from July 2020 and October 2021 relating to a March 2020 cybersecurity incident, and has experienced a multi-year campaign by a sophisticated threat actor group plus successful social engineering attempts. These incidents could lead to substantial costs, regulatory action, and reputational harm.
GoDaddy is increasingly using AI, including the 2023 launch of GoDaddy Airo, and warns that AI may create intellectual property, privacy, cybersecurity, accuracy, bias, and regulatory risks. Evolving rules such as the Biden administration Executive Order on October 30, 2023, and competitors developing superior or more cost-effective AI could harm adoption and financial results.
GoDaddy faces significant and intensifying competition for A&C and Core products from companies such as Shopify, Block, BigCommerce, Stripe, PayPal, Wix, Squarespace, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. Some competitors have greater resources, and low-cost or no-cost offerings like Cloudflare domains and Let's Encrypt certificates could pressure market share and margins.
A substantial portion of GoDaddy's cloud infrastructure is provisioned through AWS, and AWS may terminate the agreement for cause upon notice and failure to cure within 45 days. Any disruption or interference with AWS services could interrupt product availability, harm reputation, and adversely affect results.
GoDaddy implemented an additional reduction in force of approximately 180 employees during the three months ended March 31, 2024, and restructuring and other was $22.4 million for that quarter, down 57%. The company warns these actions may not adequately reduce operating costs or improve margins and may cause workforce attrition and operational disruptions.
Higher interest rates, inflation in the cost of goods and services including labor, and a recession or economic slowdown could reduce demand for GoDaddy's products. The filing notes U.S. inflation rose in the second half of 2021 and remained above the Federal Reserve's target, and customers may reduce or postpone discretionary spending.
Starboard Value L.P. reported approximately 6.2% beneficial ownership of GoDaddy's common stock as of January 2024. Responding to activist actions could disrupt the business, divert management attention, and create uncertainty that harms customer, partner, and employee relationships.
Bookings outside the U.S. represented approximately 33% of total bookings for each of the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022, and 2021, and operations are growing in India. Conflicts between Russia and Ukraine and in the Middle East, related sanctions, and reliance on contractors in Ukraine could impair growth prospects and operations.
GoDaddy has significant long-term debt, and its debt agreements contain covenants restricting indebtedness, liens, mergers, asset sales, and restricted payments. Interest expense was $41.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024, down 9.8%, but the debt load could limit flexibility and divert cash flow from operations.
GoDaddy Payments is subject to money transmission, payment card network rules, and third-party processor agreements. Payment processors may impose holdbacks or suspend processing upon material adverse changes in financial condition, and risk management programs may not effectively detect and prevent fraud or illegal transactions.
GoDaddy's future success depends on maintaining strong renewals, and renewal costs are substantially lower than new customer acquisition costs. A reduction in renewals, even if offset by other revenue, could reduce operating margins, and total customers at period end were 20,995 thousand compared with 20,997 thousand in the prior-year period.
SaaS KPIs
All quarters →Total bookings
Domains under management
Unlevered free cash flow
Free cash flow
Average revenue per user (ARPU)
Total customers at period end
Annualized Recurring Revenue (ARR)
Normalized EBITDA
ARR (Core Platform)
ARR (Applications and Commerce)
Summary, forecast, risks and KPIs are extracted from GoDaddy Inc.'s SEC filings for Q1 FY2024 (10-Q / 10-K and the 8-K earnings release); GAAP figures in the summary are checked against the reported XBRL data. They can contain errors; the filings are authoritative. Processed Oct 1, 2026.