Starboard Value’s Jeff Smith added to his GoDaddy holding last quarter while trimming his lucrative activist bet in Salesforce , according to a new regulatory filing. The hedge fund increased its stake in GoDaddy to nearly $925 million at the end of 2023, making the web services company its biggest holding. Smith recently sent a letter to GoDaddy’s management, urging it to continue moving “in the right direction” by setting specific and realistic growth targets and providing investors with more detail on how management will improve margins. The investor said in October that GoDaddy should target a growth-profitability combination of 40% coming out of 2024. If the firm can achieve this goal, it will generate at least $10 in free cash flows per share in fiscal 2025, Smith said back then. Starboard continued to trim its stake in customer relations management software company Salesforce , which in 2022, he took an activist stake in. The stock rallied a whopping 98% in 2023 and gained another 10% this year. The Wharton graduate launched the Starboard Value investment strategy at Ramius in 2002. Nine years later, he spun out his New York-based hedge fund and became its CEO. The filing also reveals a few new stakes for Starboard, including News Corp and Fortrea . CNBC had already reported on these stakes when Smith appeared at a conference in last year. Smith thinks the media conglomerate should separate the digital real estate assets through a tax-free spinoff. That way, News Corp shareholders will see “significant appreciation” in the company’s share price, he said. He’s also bullish on drug trial contract research company Fortrea, which he said should see an improving margin.
