GoDaddy Stock Price Forecast: (NYSE:GDDY) AI Expansion and SME Financing Power $250 Target

GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) Stock Analysis: AI Expansion, Financial Leverage, and Growth Outlook

The performance of GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE:GDDY) has drawn attention in 2025 as the stock trades at $148.31, well below its 52-week high of $216.00, yet still posting a 24.86% YTD gain against the S&P 500’s 9.84%. Despite the selloff earlier this year, analysts continue to price the stock aggressively higher, with Benchmark maintaining a $250 target, implying a potential upside of nearly 70% from current levels.

Revenue Mix and Segment Shifts in NYSE:GDDY

GoDaddy’s business remains anchored in its Core segment, which generates 62% of revenue through domains and hosting, delivering steady 5% year-over-year growth and a 33% EBITDA margin. However, the growth engine is Applications & Commerce (A&C), representing 36% of total revenue, growing 14% YoY, and expanding to 40% by year-end. The A&C unit now drives 44% of EBITDA contribution with margins north of 40%, showing stronger leverage than Core. Overall, trailing twelve-month revenue stands at $4.75 billion, with a net income of $808.5 million and a margin of 17%.

Earnings Momentum and Analyst Forecasts for GDDY

In Q2 2025, GoDaddy posted $1.41 EPS, topping forecasts of $1.38, on revenue of $1.21 billion. Analysts project $6.02 EPS for FY2025, declining slightly from 2024’s $6.45, before rebounding to $7.15 in 2026, reflecting 16% forward growth. Revenue is forecast at $4.92B in 2025, rising to $5.28B in 2026. Despite slowing growth in the global domain registry market (2.6% annually), GoDaddy’s pricing power is holding, with average revenue per user up 10% to $230, while churn has eased.

AI Integration and Operational Efficiencies at NYSE:GDDY

AI sits at the core of GoDaddy’s growth strategy. The Airo platform—covering domain search, web design, logo creation, and marketing—has boosted retention and cross-sell, while the new Airo Plus at $5 per month expands monetization. Internally, AI-driven automation is reducing engineering workloads, with recent tests showing 100% of new code generated by AI under senior supervision. The efficiency gains have already contributed to record operating margins of 21.9%, with management targeting 33% EBITDA margins by 2026.

GoDaddy Capital: A New Growth Lever

A major strategic addition is GoDaddy Capital, offering up to $1 million in cash advances to SMEs within 24 hours, available only to GoDaddy Payments users. Nearly 51% of SMBs cite cash flow constraints as their biggest hurdle, and this product addresses that gap directly. The program also locks more businesses into the GoDaddy ecosystem by combining financing with payment solutions, strengthening long-term revenue visibility.

Valuation Metrics and Market Position for NYSE:GDDY

At 26.4x trailing P/E and 24.8x forward P/E, GoDaddy trades at a discount to its 2024 multiples, when it reached 34x. Its price-to-sales ratio at 4.5x and enterprise value to EBITDA at 19.7x are more aligned with software infrastructure peers like Wix (NASDAQ:WIX) and Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM). Free cash flow sits at $1.23B annually, supported by low capital intensity (<$200M in PP&E), allowing management to fund aggressive share buybacks. Return on equity is distorted by GoDaddy’s tax and debt structure but sits at 288%, while return on assets is a more normalized 8.1%.

Balance Sheet Strength and Tax Adjustments

GoDaddy carries $3.88B in total debt, balanced by $1.15B in cash, with a net leverage ratio of 2.3x EBITDA, down from prior years. Importantly, tax benefits from its Up-C structure are nearly exhausted, with just $108M of unrealized credits left. The effective tax rate will rise from near-zero in 2024 to above 15% in coming years, a headwind for EPS, though offset by margin expansion from A&C and AI-driven efficiencies.

Competitive Pressures and Risks in GDDY

While GoDaddy controls 81 million domains and an 11% registrar market share, competition from VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) in core registry and Shopify (NYSE:SHOP) in e-commerce keeps pricing power limited. Additionally, risks include cybersecurity breaches, antitrust scrutiny, and short-term revenue loss from the .co domain transfer, which management guided as a 50bp revenue headwind in Q4 2025. Customer concentration among microbusinesses remains another vulnerability in a slowdown, as churn in that segment is structurally higher.

Insider and Institutional Positioning in NYSE:GDDY

Institutional investors hold 98.36% of shares outstanding, while insiders own only 0.68%. Insider transactions have remained modest, but buybacks are reducing float aggressively, with diluted average shares falling from 161 million in 2021 to 144 million in 2025. Short interest stands at 5.04% of float, equating to 5.34M shares, with a short ratio of 2.4 days, signaling limited bearish conviction.

Outlook and Verdict on NYSE:GDDY

With GoDaddy stock at $148.31, trading 23% below fair value estimates of ~$192 per share, and analyst targets as high as $250, the risk-reward profile skews bullish. Applications & Commerce expansion, AI integration, and GoDaddy Capital’s SME financing strategy are expected to push revenue growth above 7% annually, with EBITDA margins rising 200bps by 2026. Competitive pressures and a heavier tax burden are headwinds, but with $1.23B free cash flow and accelerating buybacks, GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) is a Buy at current levels.

That's TradingNEWS