Swiss National Bank trims stake in GoDaddy Inc.
The Swiss National Bank has sold over 65,500 shares in the global technology company, GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE:GDDY), according to the organization’s latest 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The sale equates to a reduction of 9.3% in the bank’s stake in GoDaddy during Q4 of last year. Following this drop in investment, Swiss National Bank now owns 635,500 shares of company stock, worth approximately $47.5 million, or around 0.41% of total outstanding shares.
GoDaddy recently reported its earnings for Q1 of this fiscal year ending March 31st, with results showing revenue growth compared to the same period last year. During Q1 of 2020, GoDaddy made $1.04 billion compared to estimates which had been an equal amount expected from sales just a year earlier in Q1 FY2019. This translated into earnings per share (EPS) of $0.30 for GoDaddy – down ($0.22) on consensus estimates – while profits remained choppy reflecting both a positive return on equity and net margin hovering above $8%.
GoDaddy is a global leader in domain name registration and web hosting services with a broad range of additional business functionalities for users seeking e-commerce solutions as well as website building and hosting tools across multiple open-source platforms within their portfolio including WordPress.org support and additional productivity software solutions under development currently provided by third-party providers however the prospect for proprietory branding exists into the near term signaling potentially greater profit margins and revenue going forward through acquisitions into adjacent tech nodes or new product lines emerging from current leadership within Web Services today that show promising upside potential over time depending upon successful implementation gone forward.
Overall analysts predict that GoDaddy will post $2.53 EPS for its current fiscal year, reflecting an expected growth in market share and earnings in the years ahead tempered by regulatory concerns over monopoly power held by major players including Amazon and Alibaba. While Swiss National Bank may have decided to reduce its stake in GoDaddy earlier this year, this is not necessarily indicative of the overall trend with this global technology company currently strengthening its position among competitors through a concentrated effort to remain agile and fast-moving across multiple customer verticals on a global scale.
Hedge Funds and Institutional Investors Show Interest in GoDaddy’s Stock as Management Team’s Insider Transactions Attract Attention
GoDaddy Inc., a leading provider of domain name registration and web hosting services, has caught the attention of several hedge funds and institutional investors. According to recent reports, firms such as Vanguard Group Inc., Starboard Value LP, State Street Corp, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. have all made changes to their positions in GoDaddy’s stock. Vanguard Group, for instance, increased its position by 0.7% during the 1st quarter, acquiring an additional 107,949 shares valued at $1.35 billion. Starboard Value LP grew its stake in the company by 21.5%, while other firms made similar moves.
Shares of GoDaddy’s stock opened at $69.24 on Wednesday with a market cap of $10.65 billion and a PE ratio of 33.13, PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.98. Overall the stock has had a fluctuating year with a high of $85.32 and a low point of $64.65 over a fifty-two week period.
GoDaddy operates through two segments: Applications and Commerce (A&C) and Core Platform (Core). The A&C segment focuses on sales related to products containing proprietary software as well as third-party email and productivity solutions alongside commerce products.
Research firms including Evercore ISI have upgraded GoDaddy from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating with an increase in price objectives from $86 to $103 per share value respectively.
In other news surrounding GoDaddy’s activity, there have been some notable insider transactions within the company’s management team that have attracted attention from financial watchdogs alike: CAO Nick Daddario sold 548 shares at average prices followed by insider Michele Lau selling more than double with figures totaling up to approximately $90k worth in shares during last month alone; all occurring in March 2021. Insiders recently sold a total of $1.89M-worth of shares over the past three months.
Given the coverage and attention surrounding GoDaddy’s management team along with their already-dominant market position, it will be intriguing to see what steps they take next to expand and maximize their share value further within the technology sphere.
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