GoDaddy’s revenue misses estimates as strong dollar weighs

Web-hosting company GoDaddy Inc forecast first-quarter revenue largely below analysts’ estimates, citing a strong dollar.

Shares of the company, which gets a quarter of its revenue from outside the United States, fell 3.8 percent to $28 in after-hours trading on Wednesday.

“Currency has been a major headwind for the business this year and will be into next year,” Chief Financial Officer Scott Wagner told Reuters.

Wagner said impact from a strong dollar will remain at or above the same level as seen in the fourth quarter.

The company forecast revenue of $428 million-$432 million, the midpoint of which was below the average analyst estimate of $431.1 million.

The weak outlook overshadowed stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results that were driven by higher demand for the company’s domain registration and Web hosting services.

GoDaddy, which manages about 62 million Internet domains or about 20 percent of the world’s total, has been investing heavily to expand into new markets.

The company plans to be in the greater Asia region by the end of 2016, including China, Indonesia and Vietnam.

GoDaddy’s international revenue in the fourth quarter jumped 16.9 percent to $110.6 million from a year earlier. The number of customers increased 8.7 percent to 13.8 million.
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GoDaddy expects to attract more customers from international markets in 2016 than in the United States, Chief Executive Blake Irving said on the earnings call.

The company broke even on a per-share basis in the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of 21 cents a year ago.

Revenue rose to $425.4 million from $371.7 million a year earlier.

Analysts had expected a loss of 3 cents per share on revenue of $423.5 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.