Godaddy Posts Narrower Q1 Loss, Issues Strong Revenue Forecast

reported a narrower loss for the first quarter on Tuesday. The company also issued a strong forecast for the current quarter. For the second quarter, the company projects revenue of $390 million to $395 million, versus analysts' estimates of $390.7 million. The company also expects FY15 revenue of $1.595 billion to $1.605 billion, versus analysts' expectations of $1.59 billion. The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company posted a quarterly loss of $43.4 million, or $0.34 per share, versus a year-ago loss of $51.3 million, or $0.40 per share. Its revenue climbed 17.5 percent to $376.3 million. However, analysts were expecting a loss of $0.35 per share on revenue of $374.52 million. The average estimate among 5 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.04 per share and revenue of $306.89 million. Domains revenue climbed 10.4 percent to $199.2 million in the quarter, while hosting and presence revenue surged 21.2 percent to $140.2 million. Business applications revenue jumped 53.3 percent to $36.9 million in the quarter, while international revenue rose 23.4 percent to $95.9 million. Its adjusted EBITDA jumped 17.8 percent to $93.9 million in the quarter. Total bookings rose 13.7 percent year-over-year to $498.7 million. As of March 31, Godaddy had 13.1 million customers, compared to 11.9 million, a year ago. At March 31, 2015, the company had $197.9 million in total cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments and $1,268.9 million in net debt. "Our investments in products, technology platform, and customer care are making a real difference for our customers around the world, and our first quarter results demonstrate the benefits of focusing on their needs. Continued strong growth in customers and ARPU drove both our first quarter revenue and EBITDA up nearly 18%," said Blake Irving, GoDaddy chief executive officer. Godaddy shares fell 2.73 percent to $26.04 in the after-hours trading session.