Report: Thursday, July 30, 2026, after market close
Earnings call: 5:00 p.m. ET
Period: Quarter ended June 30, 2026 (aboutus.godaddy.net)
The headline numbers should be relatively straightforward: GoDaddy guided Q2 revenue to approximately 6% growth and normalized EBITDA margin to roughly 33%. The more consequential question is whether bookings have reaccelerated to match revenue growth, as management promised after a soft Q1.
Beyond that, investors need evidence that GoDaddy’s AI strategy is becoming a durable growth driver rather than merely an efficiency program. The most important update will be the trajectory of Airo AI Builder, which reached more than $10 million in annualized bookings shortly after beta launch but was still receiving limited traffic and marketing support at the end of Q1.
The setup is attractive but not undemanding. At the July 29 close of $105.44, GDDY has rallied approximately 13% over the past three trading sessions and 28% since March 31, although it remains roughly 11% below its 2025 year-end level. A merely in-line quarter may therefore need convincing bookings and guidance commentary to hold the recent gains.
| Metric | Q2 2026 reference point | Q2 2025 | What would be encouraging |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Company guide: $1.285B–$1.305B; Street near $1.29B | $1.218B | Above the high end, or strong underlying growth despite known headwinds |
| Adjusted/normalized EPS | Aggregators cluster around $1.69–$1.72 | $1.41 | Beat driven by operating leverage and lower share count, not unusual tax items |
| Normalized EBITDA margin | Approximately 33% | 31.3% | 33% or better while funding Airo marketing and compute |
| Implied normalized EBITDA | Roughly $424M–$431M | $381.7M | Around $430M or higher |
| Total bookings | No explicit numerical guide; management said growth should be at or above revenue growth | $1.345B | Approximately $1.43B, or at least 6% growth |
| A&C revenue growth | Low double digits | 14.4% | 11%–12%+, with better bookings momentum |
| Core revenue growth | Low single digits | 4.8% | 3%–4%, especially if non-core hosting stabilizes |
| FY2026 FCF | Approximately $1.8B | FY2025: $1.6B | Reaffirmation or increase |
Company guidance calls for revenue of $1.285 billion to $1.305 billion, low-double-digit Applications and Commerce growth, low-single-digit Core growth and a normalized EBITDA margin of approximately 33%. (sec.gov) Street EPS estimates vary by provider, with current figures around $1.69 to $1.72. (barchart.com)
For comparison, Q2 2025 produced $1.218 billion of revenue, $1.345 billion of bookings, $381.7 million of normalized EBITDA and $391.5 million of free cash flow. (sec.gov)
Q1 revenue grew 6%, but bookings grew only 3%. Management attributed the gap to:
.CO registry contract;Management characterized Q1 as the peak impact of these factors and said bookings growth should be at or above revenue growth for the remaining nine months of 2026.
That effectively establishes a Q2 hurdle of approximately 6% bookings growth, equivalent to roughly $1.43 billion against last year’s $1.345 billion. A result materially below that level would weaken the argument that Q1 was merely a temporary distortion.
Because much of GoDaddy’s revenue is recognized over subscription terms, bookings can reveal changes in demand before they become obvious in reported revenue.
At the end of Q1, Airo AI Builder had exceeded $10 million in annualized bookings within weeks of beta launch. That figure included subscriptions and credit purchases but excluded subsequent cross-selling of other GoDaddy products.
The early result was notable because:
Three months later, investors should expect more than another qualitative statement about “strong adoption.”
What is the current annualized bookings run rate?
A substantial increase from $10 million would validate demand as distribution expands.
How much growth came from paid marketing versus organic traffic?
This is crucial for assessing customer-acquisition economics.
Are customers repeatedly purchasing credits?
Repeat usage would support a consumption-based revenue opportunity beyond initial subscriptions.
Is AI Builder creating incremental demand or replacing Websites + Marketing purchases?
Cannibalization is not necessarily negative, but it changes the net growth and margin implications.
What are the gross-margin characteristics?
Management has said the product is gross-margin positive, but inference about normalized margins is still difficult without information on compute costs and credit usage.
Is Airo improving attach and retention?
Q1’s newer Airo cohorts attached a second product 30% faster than non-Airo cohorts. Further cohort evidence would be more valuable than raw user counts.
A credible update would include at least one new quantitative marker—bookings run rate, paid conversion, published-site activity, credit repurchase or cross-sell behavior.
Q1 normalized EBITDA increased 13% to $413.5 million, while margin expanded 210 basis points to 32.6%. Free cash flow rose 15% to $473.6 million. GoDaddy nevertheless maintained its plan to increase Airo marketing and compute spending during Q2. (sec.gov)
At the midpoint of revenue guidance, a 33% margin implies approximately $427 million of normalized EBITDA, up around 12% year over year.
The strongest result would be:
A modest margin miss could be tolerated if it accompanies clearly productive AI investment and stronger bookings. A miss paired with vague Airo metrics would be more concerning because it could indicate rising spending without proven returns.
Also watch for evidence that AI is improving internal productivity:
Applications and Commerce generated $498.2 million of Q1 revenue, up 12%, and now represents roughly 40% of GoDaddy’s business. Management expects another low-double-digit increase in Q2.
Using last year’s $463.9 million base, 10%–12% growth would place Q2 A&C revenue around $510 million–$520 million.
Important underlying drivers include:
The mix matters. Subscription and attach-led growth is generally more durable than growth driven primarily by pricing. Investors should listen for whether unit adoption is improving as pricing initiatives around the upgraded Websites + Marketing product remain gated by customer-experience tests.
Core revenue grew 3% in Q1 to $768.7 million. Primary domains grew 5%, but the segment faced pressure from:
.CO registry contract;Low-single-digit Q2 growth implies approximately $769 million–$784 million of Core revenue against last year’s $753.7 million.
The best outcome is not necessarily rapid Core growth. Rather, investors should look for:
Core is the acquisition and distribution engine for higher-margin A&C products. Its strategic value is therefore greater than its standalone growth rate suggests.
GoDaddy finished Q1 with approximately 20.4 million customers, up only 13,000 sequentially. That muted increase reflected both promotional gross additions and the retirement of a lower-value product.
Management’s operating thesis is that a smaller number of high-intent customers can create more value through better activation, attach and renewal. Supporting indicators in Q1 included:
Accordingly, a flat customer count is not automatically negative. It becomes a concern if it coincides with slowing bookings, weaker attach or declining renewal behavior.
A high-quality Q2 customer update would show:
Current FY2026 guidance is:
The stock is more likely to respond to the implied second-half trajectory than to a small Q2 EPS beat.
Positive
Neutral
Negative
.CO and aftermarket effects.Using the July 29 closing price of $105.44 and Q1’s approximately 133.3 million diluted-share count as a proxy, GoDaddy’s equity value is around $14.1 billion. The $1.8 billion FCF target therefore represents an approximate 12.8% free-cash-flow yield, or about 7.8 times FCF.
Including Q1 net debt of approximately $2.6 billion, the shares trade around 9.6 times an illustrative full-year normalized EBITDA based on the midpoint of revenue guidance and a 33% margin.
These are undemanding multiples if:
GoDaddy repurchased $280 million of stock in Q1, bringing the diluted share count to roughly 133 million. The company had already reduced fully diluted shares by more than 31% since 2022. The lower share price makes continued repurchases potentially more accretive than the sizable purchases made at much higher prices during early 2025. GoDaddy’s 2025 10-K reported more than $2.1 billion of unused authorization at year-end, before Q1 activity. (sec.gov)
The risk is that buybacks create less value if current FCF proves temporarily elevated or if AI requires materially greater reinvestment.
Airo can improve conversion, attach, product development and customer-care efficiency. At the same time, AI-native website and application builders can lower barriers for new competitors, while AI assistants may reduce traditional search and web-navigation activity.
GoDaddy explicitly warns that customers could increasingly rely on third-party AI platforms or closed ecosystems, potentially reducing demand for domains, hosting and website products or increasing pricing pressure. (sec.gov)
The company is simultaneously upgrading Websites + Marketing, expanding Airo AI Builder, refining promotions and retiring lower-value products. That creates potential volatility in product allocation, bookings, customer count and margins.
Weakness in non-core hosting, lower aftermarket transactions and the .CO contract expiration can obscure the health of the domain franchise.
GoDaddy’s customers often have limited budgets. A deterioration in business formation, renewal rates or discretionary technology spending could affect bookings before it is visible in revenue.
AI-driven products introduce risks involving data privacy, intellectual property, inaccurate content, autonomous actions and regulatory compliance. GoDaddy also depends heavily on AWS and other partners for portions of its platform and product suite. (sec.gov)
This would support the view that GoDaddy can compound FCF while converting its domain funnel into an AI-powered small-business platform.
This would be fundamentally satisfactory, although the recent share-price rally could limit the immediate upside.
That combination would raise questions about whether AI investment and promotional activity are generating sufficient incremental demand.
The Q2 revenue and EPS figures matter, but bookings, Airo traction and the full-year FCF outlook will determine the quality of the report.
The key test is whether GoDaddy can deliver all three of the following simultaneously:
If those conditions are met, the current valuation and ongoing share reduction provide a compelling earnings-growth setup. If bookings remain soft and Airo commentary stays largely qualitative, investors may conclude that the attractive FCF yield reflects structural AI and growth risk rather than simple undervaluation.