Shares of GoDaddy surged 9.6% to $116.05 on October 30, defying a brutal day for software stocks after the company posted third-quarter results that topped Wall Street expectations across the board. The rally is striking given the iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF (IGV) fell roughly 4.1% the same session on weak guidance from peers — making GoDaddy's beat a rare bright spot investors need to weigh carefully. GoDaddy's AI-Powered Airo Is Doubling Every Quarter — But Can a $100 Million Product Move the Needle on a $5 Billion Business?

Shares of GoDaddy jumped 9.6% to $116.05 on October 30, bucking a software sector selloff after the company posted a third-quarter earnings beat and showed explosive early traction for its AI-driven website builder. The move stands out: the broader software ETF (IGV) dropped 4.1% the same day on weak results from peers, making GoDaddy's rally almost entirely company-specific.

The Numbers Cleared a High Bar — Especially on Profits

GoDaddy reported adjusted earnings of $2.08 per share on revenue of $1.34 billion, beating estimates of $1.89 and $1.32 billion, respectively.

Net income climbed 24% to $261.8 million.

Normalized EBITDA rose 10% to $449 million, expanding margin to over 33%.

The EPS beat outpacing the revenue beat suggests the quarter was driven by margin improvement and operating leverage, not just top-line growth — meaning GoDaddy is getting more profitable per dollar of revenue.

Airo's Trajectory Is Eye-Popping, but Still Small

Airo, GoDaddy's AI-powered website product, exceeded a $100 million annualized bookings run rate, more than doubling the $50 million reported one quarter ago.

Just two quarters earlier, Airo had only a "multi-million dollar" run rate within weeks of its beta launch. The growth curve is steep — from roughly nothing to $100 million in under a year. But context matters: against roughly $5.2 billion in expected full-year revenue, Airo still represents less than 2% of the business. Encouragingly, more than 70% of Airo customers buy at least two paid products, well above the company-wide average of over 50%.

Customers Are Spending More, Not Just Signing Up

GoDaddy finished Q3 with 20.5 million customers — adding just 40,000 in the quarter — but average revenue per user jumped 6.8% to $253 , signaling the real growth engine is upselling existing users rather than acquiring new ones. Airo was only introduced into the domain purchase path — GoDaddy's largest customer funnel — in late Q3 , meaning the next quarter could show further acceleration.

Buybacks Are Shrinking the Share Count Fast

Year to date through October 26, GoDaddy repurchased 15.7 million shares for $1.4 billion, cutting fully diluted shares by 12% since January.

Full-year free cash flow is still targeted at roughly $1.8 billion , giving management ample firepower to keep reducing the float, which mechanically boosts earnings per share even if the underlying business grows modestly.