GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Morgan Stanley Analyst Says

GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) had its target price lifted by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $189.00 to $227.00 in a research report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the technology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price indicates a potential upside of 15.17% from the company’s current price.

GDDY has been the subject of several other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of GoDaddy from $170.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. B. Riley increased their price target on shares of GoDaddy from $170.00 to $190.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. StockNews.com lowered GoDaddy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Benchmark upped their price objective on GoDaddy from $186.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $230.00 target price (up previously from $190.00) on shares of GoDaddy in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $194.14.

GoDaddy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GDDY opened at $197.10 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $197.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $170.17. GoDaddy has a 52-week low of $103.64 and a 52-week high of $211.11. The company has a market cap of $27.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.23 and a beta of 1.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.61, a quick ratio of 0.56 and a current ratio of 0.56.

GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The technology company reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.07. GoDaddy had a return on equity of 267.29% and a net margin of 41.74%. The firm had revenue of $1.15 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.89 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that GoDaddy will post 4.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at GoDaddy

In other GoDaddy news, COO Roger Chen sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $183.80, for a total transaction of $183,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 185,632 shares in the company, valued at $34,119,161.60. This trade represents a 0.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Brian Sharples sold 500 shares of GoDaddy stock in a transaction on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $179.00, for a total value of $89,500.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 24,121 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,317,659. This trade represents a 2.03 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,003 shares of company stock worth $4,462,363 in the last 90 days. 0.61% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On GoDaddy

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its holdings in GoDaddy by 2,279.5% during the 3rd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 401,249 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $62,908,000 after acquiring an additional 384,386 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its stake in shares of GoDaddy by 3,227.3% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 361,710 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $56,709,000 after purchasing an additional 350,839 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of GoDaddy by 19.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,660,283 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $260,299,000 after purchasing an additional 274,014 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in GoDaddy by 37.7% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 861,066 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $120,305,000 after buying an additional 235,934 shares during the period. Finally, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new position in GoDaddy in the second quarter worth approximately $30,785,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.28% of the company’s stock.

About GoDaddy

GoDaddy Inc engages in the design and development of cloud-based products in the United States and internationally. It operates through two segments: Applications and Commerce, and Core Platform. The Applications and Commerce segment provides applications products, including Websites + Marketing, a mobile-optimized online tool that enables customers to build websites and e-commerce enabled online stores; and Managed WordPress, a streamlined and optimized website building that allows customers to easily build and manage a faster WordPress site; Managed WooCommerce Stores to sell anything and anywhere online; and marketing tools and services, such as GoDaddy Studio mobile application, search engine optimization, Meta and Google My Business, and email and social media marketing designed to help businesses acquire and engage customers and create content.