Calls

Source: S&P Capital IQ transcripts via Xpressfeed · latest indexed call 2026-04-30 · generated 2026-07-28.

Latest call digest

GoDaddy Inc., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, Apr 30, 2026 · 2026-04-30T21:00:00

Q1 2026 call — April 30, 2026. The prepared remarks were an AI story wrapped around a steady financial one: revenue grew 6% to $1.3 billion, normalized EBITDA margin expanded over 200 basis points to 33%, free cash flow rose 15% to $474 million (trailing-12-month $1.68 billion), and share count fell to 133 million. Management framed its AI transformation around three proof points — the new Airo AI Builder, which reached a "$10 million plus in annualized bookings run rate within weeks of its beta launch"; Agent Name Service (ANS), where non-GoDaddy agents now "number in the thousands"; and AI-driven internal efficiency, including Airo Care lifting first-test resolution rates by roughly 50%. ARPU rose 9% to $246 with retention above 85%.

The Q&A reality was more guarded. Total bookings grew only 3% — described as the "peak impact" of the promotional offer, the .CO registry expiration and a tough aftermarket compare — and management reaffirmed that bookings and revenue growth should be "at or above parity" for the rest of the year. FY2026 revenue guidance ($5.195–$5.275 billion) and the ~$1.8 billion free cash flow target were reaffirmed. Analysts pushed hardest on Airo AI Builder economics, which management declined to break out as "too early," and on capital allocation, where Q1 buybacks ($280 million) ran below free cash flow; that question was deflected to "look at our history." Management also reiterated it will let low-LTV domain customers go in favor of high-intent ones.

Participant coverage from the latest call.

Group	Participants	Count
Management	Christie Masoner — Vice President & Head of Investor Relations, GoDaddy Inc.; Amanpal Bhutani — CEO & Director, GoDaddy Inc.; Mark McCaffrey — Chief Financial Officer, GoDaddy Inc.	3
Analysts	Vikram Kesavabhotla — Senior Research Analyst, Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division; Hoi-Fung Wong — MD & Senior Analyst, Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division; Trevor Young — Former Vice President, Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division; Mark Zgutowicz — Senior Equity Analyst, The Benchmark Company, LLC, Research Division; Willow Miller — Research Analyst, William Blair & Company L.L.C., Research Division; Sang-Jin Byun — Equity Analyst, Jefferies LLC, Research Division; Eleanor Smith — Analyst, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division; Naved Khan — Managing Director of Internet Equity Research, B. Riley Securities, Inc., Research Division; John Halpert — Research Analyst, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., Research Division; Kishan Patel — Senior Research Associate, Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division; Kathleen Alexis Keyser — Research Associate, Morgan Stanley, Research Division	11

Curated latest-call exchanges; one row per analyst topic.

Analyst	Firm	Topic	What changed in Q&A
Vikram Kesavabhotla	Baird	Customer quality and AI-efficiency reinvestment	Asked how GoDaddy ensures it attracts the right customer and how AI savings flow to EBITDA versus reinvestment; management defined quality via activation and second-product attach, and described a disciplined, ROI-gated approach to funding AI marketing.
Ken Wong	Oppenheimer	Airo AI Builder ceiling and hosting for AI workloads	Pressed on how large the Builder could become; management declined to size it as very early, and confirmed the Builder runs on GoDaddy hosting while staying focused on micro-business, not enterprise, workloads.
Trevor Young	Barclays	Bookings shape and capital allocation / M&A	Asked about the bookings curve and why buybacks trailed free cash flow with cash building; management guided parity or better and deflected the buyback-pace question to its track record, offering no specific M&A signal.
Mark Zgutowicz	Benchmark	Airo AI Builder unit economics	Sought transaction size, credit-versus-subscription mix and margin profile; management declined specifics, saying it is too early and reiterating only that the product is gross-margin positive.
Eleanor Smith	JPMorgan	ANS right-to-win and domain share strategy	Questioned GoDaddy's advantage in ANS versus larger competitors and whether it would sacrifice domain share; management leaned on its DNS and largest-registrar position and confirmed willingness to let low-LTV domain customers go.
John Halpert	Cantor Fitzgerald	The removed lower-value product	Asked which product was retired and its impact; management did not name it, describing it as an older offering with little-to-no bookings impact and a slight churn benefit.
Kishan Patel	Raymond James	AI-native discovery and top-of-funnel traffic	Asked whether AI interfaces are changing acquisition patterns; management said the prior search-traffic impact from AI mode continued but was offset by conversion, and positioned GoDaddy to serve agent- and API-led journeys.

Theme tracker

Themes are curator-classified across supplied calls.

Theme	Status	Quarters mentioned	Read-through
AI / Airo transformation	persisted	Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026	The dominant narrative on every recent call, evolving from generative Airo (discovery/engagement/monetization) to an agentic Airo.ai and, most recently, the Airo AI Builder with early bookings. The framing has shifted from a longer-dated experiment toward a product management is willing to fund with paid marketing.
Agent Name Service (ANS)	emerged	Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026	A new identity-layer narrative introduced in Q3 2025 that ties domains/DNS to agent identity. It has progressed from concept to a MuleSoft integration to thousands of non-GoDaddy agents, but remains pre-revenue and dependent on open-standard adoption.
High-intent customers and $500-plus cohort / ARPU	persisted	Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026	A consistent strategic frame: management deprioritizes headline customer count in favor of high-intent customers, rising attach, near-perfect retention and ARPU growth. The $500-plus cohort has been cited at roughly 9–10% of the base across the last several calls.
Pricing and bundling	persisted	Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026	A headline growth driver through 2024 and mid-2025 that has recently been deferred: by Q4 2025 management said pricing initiatives would "have to wait" behind the AI-based Websites + Marketing rebuild, and Q1 2026 reiterated that pricing changes wait until the new product reaches parity.
Free cash flow North Star and margin expansion	persisted	Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025, Q4 2025, Q1 2026	The financial backbone of every call: a stated 20% free-cash-flow CAGR North Star, roughly 1:1 EBITDA-to-FCF conversion and steady margin expansion toward the 33% 2026 target, which management now expects to exceed.
Commerce / GPV updates	dropped	Q3 2024, Q4 2024, Q1 2025, Q2 2025, Q3 2025	Quarterly commerce and gross-payments-volume updates (GoDaddy Capital, Rate Saver, GPV milestones) were a staple of prepared remarks through mid-2025, but faded out of the AI-dominated Q4 2025 and Q1 2026 calls, where commerce appears mainly as one leg of the identity/presence/commerce platform rather than a discussed growth initiative.

Guidance ledger

Quotes, calls, and speakers are source-verified; outcomes are curator-classified.

Verbatim guidance	Call	Speaker	Curator outcome	Outcome note
“we are also raising our unlevered free cash flow target to $1.475 billion-plus and free cash flow to $1.325 billion-plus for the full year”	GoDaddy Inc., Q3 2024 Earnings Call, Oct 30, 2024 · 2024-10-30T21:00:00	Mark McCaffrey	kept	FY2024 free cash flow grew 25% to $1.4 billion, above this raised target.
“For the full year of 2025, we are targeting free cash flow of at least $1.5 billion, representing growth of over 11%.”	GoDaddy Inc., Q4 2024 Earnings Call, Feb 13, 2025 · 2025-02-13T22:00:00	Mark McCaffrey	kept	The target was raised through 2025 and FY2025 free cash flow reached $1.6 billion, up 19%.
“In 2025, we expect normalized EBITDA margin expansion of approximately 100 basis points, and we remain on track to deliver our Investor Day target of 33% by 2026.”	GoDaddy Inc., Q4 2024 Earnings Call, Feb 13, 2025 · 2025-02-13T22:00:00	Mark McCaffrey	kept	FY2025 delivered about 150 basis points of expansion to a 32% margin, ahead of the 100 bps target; the 33% 2026 target remains pending.
“we are raising our full year free cash flow target to approximately $1.6 billion, representing growth of over 18%”	GoDaddy Inc., Q2 2025 Earnings Call, Aug 07, 2025 · 2025-08-07T21:00:00	Mark McCaffrey	kept	FY2025 free cash flow came in at $1.6 billion, up 19%, per the Q4 2025 call.
“we are raising our 2025 revenue guide to a range of $4.93 billion to $4.95 billion, representing growth of approximately 8% at the midpoint”	GoDaddy Inc., Q3 2025 Earnings Call, Oct 30, 2025 · 2025-10-30T21:00:00	Mark McCaffrey	kept	FY2025 revenue came in at approximately $5 billion, 8% growth, per the Q4 2025 call.
“we expect total revenue to be within a range of $5.195 billion to $5.275 billion, representing growth of approximately 6% at the midpoint”	GoDaddy Inc., Q4 2025 Earnings Call, Feb 24, 2026 · 2026-02-24T22:00:00	Mark McCaffrey	pending	FY2026 guidance, reaffirmed on the Q1 2026 call; the year is not yet complete.
“we reaffirm our full year free cash flow target of approximately $1.8 billion”	GoDaddy Inc., Q1 2026 Earnings Call, Apr 30, 2026 · 2026-04-30T21:00:00	Mark McCaffrey	pending	FY2026 free cash flow target; management also reiterated it is on track to exceed its 20% North Star CAGR.

Q&A pressure map

Question counts and firms are curator tallies; analyst coverage shown above.

Topic	Questions	Firms	Pressure / response
Airo AI Builder economics, scale and monetization	5	Oppenheimer, Benchmark, Jefferies, B. Riley, William Blair	The most pressed topic on the Q1 2026 call. Several firms sought unit economics, credit-versus-subscription mix, margin profile and how large the product could become; management repeatedly answered that it is too early, offering only the $10 million annualized run rate and a gross-margin-positive assurance — a mild non-answer to the specific unit-economics asks.
Bookings-to-revenue parity and shape of the recovery	4	Baird, Oppenheimer, Barclays, B. Riley	Recurring since Q4 2025, when the .com promotional offer and term-mix shift cut bookings. Analysts probed whether the drag is one-time and how bookings re-accelerate; management consistently guides to parity or better by year-end, with Q1 2026 framed as the peak impact.
ANS competitive right-to-win	3	JPMorgan, Oppenheimer, Citi	Across Q3 2025 through Q1 2026, analysts repeatedly asked why GoDaddy can win in agent identity versus larger players. Management leans on its DNS infrastructure and largest-registrar position; it has not attached revenue to ANS, so the payoff remains a conviction case.
AI competition and search traffic at the top of funnel	3	Oppenheimer, William Blair, Raymond James	Analysts pressed on vibe-coding entrants and AI-mode search eroding the funnel. Management concedes some search-traffic impact but says it is offset by conversion and that it has not seen large direct funnel impact — a measured rather than dismissive answer.

Language shifts

Only language evidence verified against the referenced component is shown.

Observation	Verbatim evidence	Call ID	Component
First explicit admission of a self-inflicted near-term bookings and revenue headwind, a more cautious note than the prior string of beat-and-raise quarters.	“But the demand for this offer was greater than we expected. And the shift in term mix, combined with the promotional price reduced up-front bookings and near-term revenue.”	1982561971	1
New hedging vocabulary on competition: management acknowledges it is not immune to AI entrants while asserting limited funnel impact, a shift from its earlier unqualified bullishness on AI.	“I'm not suggesting that we are immune to what's happening in the world, we just have not seen very large impact of that in our funnel yet or at this time.”	1982561971	49
Persistent acknowledgment of an AI-driven search headwind, consistently framed as offset by conversion rather than as a growth risk.	“we do see some impact to traffic in search because of the move to AI mode, but we were able to offset that impacted traffic by improving conversion on our side”	1993783748	56
Escalating confidence language on internal AI code generation, moving from a "70% by year-end" goal earlier in 2025 to "the majority" of code and "breathtaking velocity."	“AI tools are now generating the majority of our code. New code bases are almost entirely AI-generated, shipping new features at breathtaking velocity”	1982561971	1

The call history shows a company mid-pivot: a durable, cash-generative domains-plus-A&C engine, executing consistently on margin and free cash flow, is now funding an unproven AI bet in Airo AI Builder and ANS while a deliberate promotional and term-mix change plus the .CO loss temporarily depress bookings. The financial discipline is well established, but the AI revenue thesis is early and unquantified, and management's repeated reluctance to size it is the central gap for the current debate.