GoDaddy Inc.
Orin's own judgment of how firmly the evidence points one way — not the chance the price goes up.
GoDaddy remains a hold heading into its October 29 Q3 2026 earnings release, caught between compelling fundamentals and a serious legal overhang.
FY2025 operating margin expanded to 23.0% with $1.58B in free cash flow (31.8% FCF margin), and the stock trades at a P/E of 15.35 versus a peer median of 23.90 — a roughly 36% discount — while Q2 2026 EPS of $1.83 beat consensus by 8.3%. However, multiple securities class action lawsuits filed in early October 2026 allege misleading disclosures around a $4.99 domain promotion that purportedly cost shareholders $13.18 per share, and insider selling is unrelenting: zero acquisitions against 91 dispositions over 24 months, with the CEO, CFO, and Chief Accounting Officer all selling in September–October 2026. The smart-money score has deteriorated to 0.01 as of Q2 2026 from 0.05 in Q3 2025, reinforcing fading institutional conviction. Clarity on the class action allegations and Q3 results is needed before repositioning.
What could go wrong
- Securities class action escalation. Multiple law firms filed class actions with an October 20, 2026 lead plaintiff deadline, alleging GoDaddy misled investors about customer acquisition and a $4.99 domain promotion that allegedly cut upfront bookings and cost shareholders $13.18 per share.
- Persistent insider selling. Over 24 months, insiders recorded 0 acquisitions and 91 dispositions totaling net -265,390 shares (-$34.6M), with the CEO, CFO, and Chief Accounting Officer all selling in September–October 2026 at prices near $97–$101.
- Declining institutional conviction. Smart-money score fell to 0.01 as of Q2 2026 from 0.05 in Q3 2025, and fund count dropped from 62 to 59 over the same period.
- High leverage on thin equity. Total debt of $3.86B against stockholders' equity of just $215M as of FY2025 leaves minimal buffer if revenue growth slows or legal costs mount.
What would change my mind
Where this comes from: FY25 fundamentals · peer comparison · earnings vs estimates, Q2 2026 · insider trades. Orin's read on GDDY; not advice.
How has the share price moved?
Down 19.5% over twelve months, from $131.88 on 27 Oct 2025 to $106.21 at the Tue 27 Oct 2026 close. Its highest close in that time was $135.18 on 4 Nov 2025; the last close is 21.4% below it.
- Green line: the closing price each trading day.
- Grey line: the average closing price over the last 50 trading days.
- Dashed amber line: the same over the last 200 trading days — a slower, smoother line.
- Bars along the bottom: shares traded each day — green when it closed higher than the day before, rose when lower (the most, 17.6M, on 29 May 2026).
- Flags: the company's filings, on the day they were made (a 10-Q is the quarterly report and a 10-K the annual report; an 8-K reports a major event).
On file
All GDDY filingsLargest holders · 13F Q2 2026
Money flow| Filer | Position | Of fund |
|---|---|---|
| Ameriprise Financial | $1.0B | 0.2% |
| BlackRock | $887.6M | 0.0% |
| Vanguard Capital Management | $735.1M | 0.0% |
| Vanguard Portfolio Management | $589.2M | 0.0% |
| Morgan Stanley | $492.9M | 0.0% |
| State Street | $443.3M | 0.0% |
| FMR | $406.7M | 0.0% |
| Invesco | $369.0M | 0.0% |
| Geode Capital Management | $323.4M | 0.0% |
| AQR Capital Management | $322.5M | 0.1% |
82 of the 815 filers we track · quarter ended Q2 2026 · positions, not flows
Insiders, last 24 months: 115 Form 4 filings; open-market trades net −$34.6M. Of the 50 on hand, 0 were open-market purchases and 34 sales — the rest are grants, option exercises and tax withholding.
Ask Orin about GDDY
Orin answers questions about GDDY from its filings, transcripts and numbers — with the source behind every claim. Your own desk starts with 3 free days, card required.
Start 3 free days →How is it priced, against its own past and its sector?
Priced at 15.6× its last 12 months of profit (Tue 27 Oct close); the typical Technology company on the NYSE is at 39.5×.
| Measure | Now | Its usual | Sector |
|---|---|---|---|
| P/E | 15.6× | — | 39.5× |
| P/S | 2.64×below usual | 3.70× | — |
| EV/EBITDA | 11.5×below usual | 25.5× | — |
| P/B | n/m | — | — |
- P/E: no usual level — it ran from 11.5× to 58.9× over its last 5 fiscal years, so a middle value says little.
- P/B: no usual level — it ran from 40.3× to 253× over its last 5 fiscal years, so a middle value says little.
- P/B: not meaningful (n/m) — its book value is so small against its price that the ratio says little.
- "Its usual" is the middle of its own last 5 fiscal years.
P/E: the share price divided by one year of profit per share — roughly how many years of today's profit the price pays for. A company that loses money has no P/E.
P/S: the company's total market value divided by one year of revenue. Used when there is no profit to measure.
EV/EBITDA: the price of the whole company (its shares plus its debt, minus its cash) divided by one year of operating profit before interest, tax and write-downs.
P/B: the share price divided by the book value per share — what the company owns minus what it owes, as its accounts record it. When book value is tiny, P/B swings wildly and says little.
What do the analysts who cover it publish?
The analysts' average 12-month price target is $104 (from $76 to $140) — 2% below the Tue 27 Oct close price. That is their published opinion, not Orin's.
$104
$76 – $140 · −2% against the last close
- 8 buy or overweight
- 8 hold
- 1 underweight or sell
Price target: the share price an analyst publishes for about 12 months ahead. It is the opinion of the firm that wrote it; the average is across the firms that cover the company.
Overweight / underweight: analysts' rating words: overweight means the firm expects the stock to do better than the others it covers, underweight worse. Their words, not Orin's.
How is it priced next to the companies it is compared to?
Priced at 15.6× its last 12 months of profit. Only 2 of the 2 companies it is compared to made a profit (DOCN 42.2×, VRSN 32.7×), so there is no typical P/E.
| Company | Market value | P/E | EV/EBITDA | Gross margin | Net margin | ROE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GDDYGoDaddy Inc. | $13B | 15.6× | 11.5× | 63.8% | 17.8% | 661% |
| DOCNDigitalOcean Holdings, Inc. | $13B | 42.2× | 35.4× | 57.2% | 23.3% | n/m |
| VRSNVeriSign, Inc. | $27B | 32.7× | 23.8× | 88.6% | 49.1% | n/m |
- DOCN, VRSN: return on equity is not meaningful (n/m) — book value is below zero.
- The list of companies is the data vendor's choice, so it can include a company a person would not have picked.
Market value: the share price times the number of shares — what the whole company is priced at.
P/E: the share price divided by one year of profit per share — roughly how many years of today's profit the price pays for. A company that loses money has no P/E.
EV/EBITDA: the price of the whole company (its shares plus its debt, minus its cash) divided by one year of operating profit before interest, tax and write-downs.
Gross margin: the share of each $1 of sales left after the direct cost of making what was sold.
Net margin: the share of each $1 of sales kept as profit after every cost. Below zero, the company lost money.
ROE: return on equity: one year of profit as a share of the shareholders' money in the business (its book value).
Is it priced high or low compared with its own past?
Priced at 15.6× its last 12 months of profit (Tue 27 Oct close). It has no full fiscal year on file since its history starts, so there is nothing of its own to compare with.
- Now15.6×
P/E: the share price divided by one year of profit per share — roughly how many years of today's profit the price pays for. A company that loses money has no P/E.
Fiscal year (FY): the company's own 12-month accounting year, which need not match the calendar year.
How has its sector been priced?
Technology companies on the NYSE were priced at a typical 39.5× their yearly profit (Tue 27 Oct close).
- Now39.5×
- Each year is the middle of that calendar year's daily sector P/E; "Now" is the Tue 27 Oct close figure, the same one in the table above.
Sector P/E: the middle P/E of the companies in the same sector on the same stock exchange, as the data vendor works it out each day.
What does a cash-flow model say a share is worth?
A standard cash-flow model puts it at $142 a share — 35% above the $105.20 price it was computed against (27 Oct).
| Model | Value a share | Against the price then |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | $142 | 35% above $105.20 |
| Levered | $209 | 99% above $105.20 |
Discounted cash flow: a model's estimate of what the company is worth today, from the cash it is forecast to make in future years. Small changes in the forecast move it a lot, and it says little about a company that loses money.
Standard / levered: two versions of the cash-flow model: the standard one counts the cash before the company pays its lenders, the levered one after.