GoDaddy (GDDY +3.80%), a domain name registrar and provider of online tools for small and medium businesses, reported first-quarter results May 2. The company quadrupled its bottom-line profits year over year while boosting its revenue by 12%. Here's a closer look at GoDaddy's results.

GoDaddy's first-quarter results: The raw numbers

Data source: GoDaddy.

What happened with GoDaddy this quarter?

• The top-line result was exactly in line with the midpoint of management's stated guidance range.
• GoDaddy sported 18,841 customers at the end of the first quarter, a 2% increase over the previous quarter and a 6% year-over-year boost.
• GoDaddy had $871 million of order bookings on tap in the fourth quarter, 11% above the year-ago period. This line item gives us an early feel for the revenue growth this company can expect over the next year or so. To give the figure some context, GoDaddy's order bookings stopped at $732 million in the fourth quarter and $783 million a year ago.
• The average revenue per customer, or ARPU, rose 8.5% to $150. That's a spurt of acceleration from the 6.6% growth rate GoDaddy maintained across fiscal year 2018.
• Unlevered free cash flows rose 22% year over year, stopping at $199 million.

Image source: GoDaddy.

What management had to say

GoDaddy CEO Scott Wagner took some time on the earnings call to remind investors about his company's fundamental business model.

"GoDaddy empowers the everyday entrepreneur by designing applications and services that help our customers look good, be everywhere, and engage with their audiences," Wagner said. "Our feature release pace continues to be rapid, and in just the first several months of the year, we've taken big steps forward in e-commerce, digital marketing, and the WordPress ecosystem."

Zooming in on the e-commerce portion, GoDaddy recently launched new tools that let clients operate download-based retail services where they sell digital music, books, art, texts, and so on. Marketing tools are becoming more automated and integrated with customer relations management, adding value to both halves of that combination. As for WordPress, GoDaddy is developing exclusive themes and content plug-ins to attract customers looking for these unique assets.

"We think there are nice opportunities to the lend of the capabilities between [advertising platform] GoCentral and WordPress, but we'll get to that a little bit in the future, but we see these two things as both critically important in addressing the major needs of not just websites but really publishing site creation and bringing website social media and digital marketing together," Wagner concluded.

Looking ahead

Based on the first-quarter results, GoDaddy's management held its full-year guidance targets steady. As a reminder, revenue should rise roughly 13% to $2.99 billion, while unlevered free cash flow should land near $740 million, for a 19% year-over-year increase.

On the way there, second-quarter sales should rise approximately 13% to $735 million. According to Wagner, order bookings are accelerating in the second quarter, which should be good tidings for revenue growth in the quarters ahead.