Empowered Funds LLC Reduces Position in GoDaddy Inc. $GDDY

Empowered Funds LLC decreased its stake in shares of GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE:GDDY) by 75.1% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,537 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 77,106 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in GoDaddy were worth $2,111,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of GoDaddy by 97.5% during the first quarter. Infrastructure Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,851 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $318,000 after buying an additional 1,901 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its stake in GoDaddy by 250.3% in the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 185,266 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $15,316,000 after acquiring an additional 132,385 shares during the last quarter. SummitTX Capital L.P. acquired a new stake in GoDaddy during the 1st quarter worth about $359,000. Delta Global Management LP lifted its position in GoDaddy by 38.7% during the 1st quarter. Delta Global Management LP now owns 27,210 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,249,000 after acquiring an additional 7,586 shares during the period. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp lifted its position in GoDaddy by 16.3% during the 1st quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 24,487 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,024,000 after acquiring an additional 3,430 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of GoDaddy in a research note on Tuesday, June 16th. William Blair lowered GoDaddy from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of GoDaddy from $83.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 31st. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of GoDaddy from $110.00 to $105.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of GoDaddy in a report on Friday, July 31st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, GoDaddy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $110.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Sigal Zarmi sold 350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.84, for a total transaction of $30,744.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 5,708 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $501,390.72. This represents a 5.78% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Amanpal Singh Bhutani sold 4,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.15, for a total value of $374,175.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 517,247 shares in the company, valued at $43,009,088.05. This trade represents a 0.86% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 21,251 shares of company stock valued at $1,854,403 over the last ninety days. 0.93% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Key Stories Impacting GoDaddy

Here are the key news stories impacting GoDaddy this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Recent earnings exceeded expectations. GoDaddy reported quarterly EPS of $1.83 versus the $1.69 consensus estimate, while revenue reached $1.30 billion, ahead of forecasts and up 6.6% year over year. Analysts’ average price target of approximately $110.33 remains above the current trading range, suggesting potential upside if concerns ease. GoDaddy earnings and analyst data
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO stock sale was disclosed. Amanpal Singh Bhutani sold 4,500 shares for approximately $374,000, reducing his direct holdings by 0.86%. Because the transaction occurred under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan and left him with more than 517,000 shares, it is a limited signal of management’s current outlook. SEC insider trading filing
• Negative Sentiment: Law firms announced investigations into possible securities-law violations. Kaplan Fox and Rosen Law Firm are seeking information from GoDaddy investors regarding allegations that the company may have issued materially misleading business information. The announcements do not establish wrongdoing, but they raise potential litigation, reputational and disclosure risks and could increase volatility. Rosen Law Firm investigation Kaplan Fox investigation
• Negative Sentiment: Analysts have become more cautious. Wedbush lowered its price target to $93 from $109, while Citigroup also reduced its expectations. Other recent actions included rating downgrades or moves to more neutral stances, potentially weighing on investor confidence despite the broader “Moderate Buy” consensus. Wedbush forecast Citigroup expectations

GoDaddy Price Performance

NYSE:GDDY opened at $90.59 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 561.10. GoDaddy Inc. has a 52 week low of $71.59 and a 52 week high of $155.90. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $86.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $88.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.99 billion, a PE ratio of 13.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.90.

GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The technology company reported $1.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $1.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.29 billion. GoDaddy had a return on equity of 660.96% and a net margin of 17.83%.GoDaddy’s quarterly revenue was up 6.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.41 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that GoDaddy Inc. will post 7.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

GoDaddy Company Profile

GoDaddy is a technology company that provides a suite of online services aimed primarily at small businesses, entrepreneurs and individuals looking to establish and grow an online presence. The company’s core activities include domain name registration and aftermarket services, a range of website hosting options, and tools for building, managing and promoting websites. Its product mix is designed to simplify the technical aspects of running a website so customers can focus on their businesses.

Product and service offerings span website builders and managed WordPress hosting, shared and dedicated hosting, e-commerce capabilities, email and productivity solutions, SSL certificates and site security tools, and online marketing and search engine optimization services.