What happened

Shares of GoDaddy (GDDY 0.25%), a domain name registrar and provider of online tools, rose sharply in early trading on Thursday, climbing by as much as 14.8%. However, as of 1:38 p.m. EDT, it was up only 4%.

The tech stock's rise was likely propelled by the second-quarter report the company delivered Wednesday, which featured a revenue result that exceeded analysts' expectations. In addition, management provided a better-than-expected third-quarter outlook.

A chart showing a stock price rising

Image source: Getty Images.

So what

GoDaddy's revenue rose 9.4% year over year in Q2 to $806.4 million, beating the analysts' consensus forecast of $794.3 million. The company's loss per share was $4.06 -- but that included a one-time payment. Without that payment, GoDaddy would have been profitable during the period.

GoDaddy said it surpassed 20 million paying customers during the quarter, adding 400,000 net new customers in Q2 alone.

Now what

Looking to Q3, management guided for revenue of $835 million, which would amount to 10% year-over-year growth. Analysts had been forecasting third-quarter revenue of $815.6 million. "Revenue growth by category is expected to approximate double-digit growth in domains, mid-single-digit growth in Hosting and Presence, and high-teens growth in Business Applications," management said.

GoDaddy also notably guided for full-year 2020 revenue to rise by 10%.