GoDaddy's stock experienced a significant after-hours plunge of 7.42% on Tuesday, sharply reversing earlier intraday gains.
The decline came despite the company reporting fourth-quarter earnings that exceeded analyst expectations. GoDaddy posted Q4 earnings per share of $1.80, beating the FactSet consensus estimate of $1.58, while revenue of $1.27 billion matched forecasts.
Investors reacted negatively to the company's forward-looking guidance. GoDaddy forecast first-quarter revenue in the range of $1.25 billion to $1.27 billion, below the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. More significantly, the company projected full-year revenue between $5.20 billion and $5.28 billion, which falls short of the $5.29 billion analysts had anticipated. The company attributed the cautious outlook to slower-than-expected adoption of its artificial intelligence tools and weaker customer acquisition in its core web hosting business.