Citigroup Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) Stock

GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) had its price target increased by stock analysts at Citigroup from $105.00 to $135.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the technology company’s stock. Citigroup‘s price objective indicates a potential upside of 13.58% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut GoDaddy from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $80.00 to $76.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 26th. Benchmark decreased their price objective on GoDaddy from $185.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of GoDaddy from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada cut shares of GoDaddy from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $95.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Sunday, October 11th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered shares of GoDaddy to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $113.62.

GoDaddy Price Performance

NYSE GDDY traded up $1.62 on Monday, hitting $118.86. The company had a trading volume of 677,798 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,245,696. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 561.10, a current ratio of 0.61 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $101.42 and its 200-day moving average price is $92.14. The company has a market capitalization of $15.05 billion, a PE ratio of 16.29 and a beta of 0.94. GoDaddy has a 12-month low of $71.59 and a 12-month high of $136.29.

GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The technology company reported $2.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $1.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.33 billion. GoDaddy had a net margin of 18.56% and a return on equity of 1,200.87%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.51 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that GoDaddy will post 7.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other GoDaddy news, CFO Mark McCaffrey sold 5,873 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.91, for a total value of $592,644.43. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 99,855 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,076,368.05. This represents a 5.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CEO Amanpal Bhutani sold 4,500 shares of GoDaddy stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $97.50, for a total transaction of $438,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 500,053 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $48,755,167.50. This represents a 0.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 26,858 shares of company stock valued at $2,657,656. 0.93% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GDDY. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in GoDaddy by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 553,300 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $45,741,000 after buying an additional 117,800 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor acquired a new position in shares of GoDaddy in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,938,000. Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in shares of GoDaddy by 4.5% in the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 396,500 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $32,779,000 after acquiring an additional 17,100 shares during the period. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC purchased a new position in GoDaddy during the 3rd quarter worth $9,306,000. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC acquired a new position in GoDaddy in the third quarter valued at $3,086,000. 90.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About GoDaddy

GoDaddy Inc (NYSE: GDDY) is a global technology company that provides online tools and services to entrepreneurs, small businesses and individuals. Its platform helps customers establish, manage and grow an online presence, with offerings that include domain-name registration, website hosting, website and online-store builders, professional email and digital marketing tools.

The company also provides services designed to support commerce and customer engagement, including e-commerce functionality, online appointment scheduling, payments and other business-management capabilities.