Domain registrar and web services company GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) met Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q1 CY2026, with sales up 6.1% year on year to $1.27 billion. The company expects next quarter’s revenue to be around $1.30 billion, close to analysts’ estimates. Its GAAP profit of $1.60 per share was 5.4% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
Is now the time to buy GoDaddy? Find out by accessing our full research report, it’s free.
GoDaddy (GDDY) Q1 CY2026 Highlights:
- Revenue: $1.27 billion vs analyst estimates of $1.26 billion (6.1% year-on-year growth, in line)
- EPS (GAAP): $1.60 vs analyst estimates of $1.52 (5.4% beat)
- Adjusted Operating Income: $385.8 million vs analyst estimates of $293.3 million (30.5% margin, 31.5% beat)
- The company reconfirmed its revenue guidance for the full year of $5.24 billion at the midpoint
- Operating Margin: 24.5%, up from 20.7% in the same quarter last year
- Free Cash Flow Margin: 37.4%, up from 29.1% in the previous quarter
- Annual Recurring Revenue: $4.29 billion vs analyst estimates of $4.32 billion (5.8% year-on-year growth, miss)
- Billings: $1.4 billion at quarter end, up 3.6% year on year
- Market Capitalization: $11.38 billion
Company Overview
Known for its memorable Super Bowl commercials that put it on the map, GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) is a domain registrar and web services provider that helps entrepreneurs establish an online presence through domain registration, website building, hosting, and e-commerce tools.
Revenue Growth
A company’s long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years. Regrettably, GoDaddy’s sales grew at a sluggish 8% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This fell short of our benchmark for the software sector and is a tough starting point for our analysis.
Long-term growth is the most important, but within software, a half-decade historical view may miss new innovations or demand cycles. GoDaddy’s annualized revenue growth of 7.8% over the last two years aligns with its five-year trend, suggesting its demand was consistently weak. 
This quarter, GoDaddy grew its revenue by 6.1% year on year, and its $1.27 billion of revenue was in line with Wall Street’s estimates. Company management is currently guiding for a 6.4% year-on-year increase in sales next quarter.
Looking further ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 5.6% over the next 12 months, a slight deceleration versus the last two years. This projection is underwhelming and implies its products and services will face some demand challenges.
WHILE YOU’RE HERE: The Next Palantir? One satellite company captures images of every point on Earth. Every single day. The Pentagon wants it. Hedge funds are using it to beat earnings. You’ve probably never heard of it.
This is what the early days of Palantir looked like before it became a $437 billion giant. Same playbook. Different technology. If you missed Palantir, you need to see this. Claim The Stock Ticker for Free HERE.
Annual Recurring Revenue
While reported revenue for a software company can include low-margin items like implementation fees, annual recurring revenue (ARR) is a sum of the next 12 months of contracted revenue purely from software subscriptions, or the high-margin, predictable revenue streams that make SaaS businesses so valuable.
GoDaddy’s ARR came in at $4.29 billion in Q1, and over the last four quarters, its growth was underwhelming as it averaged 7.4% year-on-year increases. This performance mirrored its total sales and suggests that increasing competition is causing challenges in securing longer-term commitments. 
Customer Acquisition Efficiency
The customer acquisition cost (CAC) payback period represents the months required to recover the cost of acquiring a new customer. Essentially, it’s the break-even point for sales and marketing investments. A shorter CAC payback period is ideal, as it implies better returns on investment and business scalability.
GoDaddy is extremely efficient at acquiring new customers, and its CAC payback period checked in at 7.9 months this quarter. The company’s rapid recovery of its customer acquisition costs means it can attempt to spur growth by increasing its sales and marketing investments.
Key Takeaways from GoDaddy’s Q1 Results
It was encouraging to see GoDaddy beat analysts’ operating profit and EPS expectations this quarter. On the other hand, its annual recurring revenue slightly missed. Zooming out, we think this was a mixed quarter. The stock traded up 4.7% to $89.29 immediately following the results.
Is GoDaddy an attractive investment opportunity at the current price? What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).
