By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – GoDaddy stock (NYSE:GDDY) surged 11% Friday as the company revealed a $3 billion share repurchase plan after reporting its first $1 billion revenue in a quarter.
Part of the share buyback plan is a $750 million accelerated exercise to be initiated before March 31.
Revenue in the fourth quarter rose nearly 17% on strong demand for its domain registry and web hosting services in a rapidly digitizing world.
Domains business surged the most compared to last year, by about 24%, and contributed nearly half of the total revenue.
Total number of bookings rose more than 11%. Customer base at the end of the year was nearly 3% from a year ago. Average revenue per customer rose 10% year-on-year.
GoDaddy expects current-year total revenue to be $4.15 billion at the center of its guidance range, up 9%. In the ongoing quarter, revenue is seen between $985 million and $990 million.
The company said its GoDaddy Payments platform is seeing a robust response.
Adjusted profit per share in the fourth quarter was 52 cents when it was expected to be at last year’s 41 cents.