Summary
GoDaddy reported second quarter fiscal 2021 revenue of $931.3 million, up 15.5% from the prior-year quarter, or 14.3% on a constant currency basis. Total bookings, a non-GAAP metric, reached $1,054.8 million, up 12.7% year over year, or 10.6% on a constant currency basis. Operating income was $88.0 million, up 284.3%, and operating margin was 9.4%, up 6.6 percentage points. Net income was $46.8 million, compared with a net loss of $673.2 million in the prior-year quarter, a swing to profit. Net cash provided by operating activities was $209.4 million, up 24.6%, and unlevered free cash flow was $237.0 million, up 27.5%. Domains revenue grew 18.2%, hosting and presence revenue grew 9.0%, and business applications revenue grew 21.8%. International revenue grew 19.2%, or 15.8% on a constant currency basis. Management cited strong secular tailwinds and products in development.
For the six months ended June 30, 2021, revenue was $1.83 billion, up 14.6% from the prior-year period. Operating income was $126.0 million, up 44.3%, and operating margin was 6.9%, up 1.4 percentage points. Net income was $57.6 million, up 109.1% and a swing to profit from the prior-year period. Net cash provided by operating activities was $430.7 million, up 7.3%. Capital expenditures were $21.1 million, down 31.3%. Deferred revenue was $1.87 billion, up 12.8% from the prior-year quarter, and remaining performance obligations were $2.64 billion, up 12.0%. Total bookings for the six months were $2,143.5 million, up 13.6%, and unlevered free cash flow for the six months was $505.3 million, up 20.2%. The six-month revenue increase was driven by growth in total customers and average revenue per user as well as contributions from recent acquisitions, according to the MD&A.
Operationally, GoDaddy introduced GoDaddy Payments, an integration with Google that lets customers display product inventory in Google Search, Shopping, Image Search, and YouTube, and enhanced Facebook advertising capabilities. It launched GoDaddy Studios, added a Job Postings function, and released its GoDaddy Pro brand in India. In February 2021, GoDaddy completed the acquisition of Poynt to expand commerce capabilities. Domains under management rose from 80.9 million at June 30, 2020 to 84.2 million at June 30, 2021. The company repurchased nearly 1 million shares for $81 million in the quarter, leaving approximately $1 billion under current authorizations. In May 2021, the board approved the repurchase of up to an additional $775.0 million of Class A common stock, and as of the filing date $999.2 million remained available for repurchases. GoDaddy also published its inaugural ESG report in June.
Guidance points to third quarter revenue growth of approximately 12% year over year. For the full fiscal year, GoDaddy expects revenue growth of approximately 13% year over year and unlevered free cash flow of approximately $955 million, representing full year growth of 16% versus 2020. The third quarter guidance covers the quarter ending September 30, 2021, while the other figures are for the full fiscal year. The company does not provide reconciliations from non-GAAP guidance to GAAP because projections of individual balance sheet amounts are not possible without unreasonable effort.
Risks include the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which could affect future results through the duration of the virus, vaccine distribution and efficacy, government measures, and economic impact. Remote work has increased cybersecurity risk. The company carries a leveraged balance sheet with net debt of $2.562 billion, and its debt agreements restrict activities such as incurring debt, issuing certain equity, liens, mergers, asset sales, dividends, and certain investments. As of June 30, 2021, GoDaddy was in compliance with all such covenants and had no amounts drawn on its Revolver. Other risks include competition, acquisition integration, regulatory and legal developments, and the execution of share repurchases. The company also faces risks from its rapidly evolving market, fluctuations in financial and operating results, interruptions or delays in service or web hosting, breaches of security measures, product acceptance, growth management, hiring and retention, technological, regulatory and legal developments, intellectual property litigation, and economic conditions. GoDaddy says its existing cash and cash equivalents and cash generated by operations should meet anticipated operating cash needs for at least the next 12 months.
Forecast
Reported figures
GAAP, from SEC filings| Metric | Q2 FY2021 | Q1 FY2021 | QoQ | Q2 FY2020 | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $931.3M | $901.1M | +3.4% | $806.4M | +15.5% |
| General & administrative | $84.5M | $95.2M | -11.2% | $82.2M | +2.8% |
| Total operating expenses | $843.3M | $863.1M | -2.3% | $783.5M | +7.6% |
| Operating income (loss) | $88.0M | $38.0M | +131.6% | $22.9M | +284.3% |
| Operating margin | 9.4% | 4.2% | +5.2 pp | 2.8% | +6.6 pp |
| Net income (loss) | $46.9M | $10.8M | +334.3% | -$673.2M | +107.0% |
| Net margin | 5.0% | 1.2% | +3.8 pp | -83.5% | +88.5 pp |
Risks
The company has experienced increased social engineering efforts and several successful incidents, including a persistent threat actor attempting to transfer customer domain names and targeting cryptocurrency-related domains. In March 2020, a threat actor compromised hosting login credentials of approximately 28,000 customers, and a recent malicious file distribution compromised a small number of customers' customers' credit cards.
Remote work arrangements for nearly all employees since March 2020 have negatively affected GoDaddy Guides' productivity and sales generation, which accounted for approximately 12% of total bookings in 2020. The MD&A notes these arrangements have increased cybersecurity risk due to less secure network connections.
The company faces intense competition from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, and Cloudflare. The extension of the Cooperative Agreement between Verisign and the U.S. Department of Commerce in 2018 gave Verisign the right to become an ICANN-accredited registrar for any gTLD other than .com, which could negatively impact GoDaddy if Verisign becomes a competitor.
Evolving technologies and changes in customer behavior, such as increased use of search engines, social media applications like Instagram, and mobile apps, may reduce the value and demand for domain names. If search engine algorithms change or search engine marketing costs increase, the company's business and operating results could be adversely affected.
The company has made significant acquisitions, including Poynt (offline commerce) and Neustar's registry business (domain name registry), and may not successfully integrate them or realize expected benefits. Lack of experience in these new lines of business and potential diversion of management attention pose risks.
The company has incurred significant long-term debt, with interest expense increasing 68% and 51% for the three and six months ended June 30, 2021, respectively, primarily due to the issuance of 2027 Term Loans and 2029 Senior Notes. Debt covenants restrict the company's ability to incur additional indebtedness, make acquisitions, or pay dividends.
The company appointed a new Chief Financial Officer effective June 2, 2021, and a new Chief Legal Officer effective July 12, 2021, and may face challenges in transitioning and integrating these executives. Competition for highly skilled personnel is intense, particularly in U.S. tech hubs, and immigration laws may limit recruiting global talent.
The company is transitioning from company-owned data centers to third-party cloud providers like AWS, and relies on a limited number of data centers. If these third parties fail to perform or if data center agreements cannot be renewed on favorable terms, operations could be interrupted and costs could increase.
SaaS KPIs
All quarters →Total bookings
Domains under management
Unlevered free cash flow
Summary, forecast, risks and KPIs are extracted from GoDaddy Inc.'s SEC filings for Q2 FY2021 (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 2, 2026.