GDDY

GoDaddy is a high-quality recurring-revenue business with the financial signature investors prize: durable growth, expanding operating profitability and prodigious free cash flow returned to shareholders. FY2025 revenue grew 8.3% to $4.95B (the fifth straight year of growth from $3.82B in FY2021) and operating income jumped 26.2% to $1.13B, lifting the operating margin to 22.8%. The headline net income dip (-6.6% to $875M) reflects below-the-line and tax/comparison effects rather than operating weakness, given operating income rose sharply.

The cash engine is the story. Operating cash flow grew 24.2% to $1.60B against trivial capex of just $23.9M — an asset-light model — and management returned essentially all of it via $1.60B of buybacks (up 136.8%), shrinking the share count 5.7% to 133M. That aggressive repurchase program is precisely why stockholders' equity is a thin $215M and retained earnings are -$2.79B: GoDaddy is deliberately running a negative-equity, buyback-funded model, which inflates the 406.8% ROE figure but is a feature, not a distress signal, for a stable subscription business.