Fastly (NASDAQ:FSLY) Shares Climb 8.9% - Time to Buy?

Key Points

• Fastly shares rose 8.9% to about $24.03, with trading volume significantly below average. The stock’s average analyst rating is “Hold,” with a consensus price target of $27.42.
• Fastly exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting earnings per share of $0.15 versus $0.07 expected and revenue of $183.32 million versus the $173.94 million consensus estimate. However, the company remained unprofitable, with an 11.8% negative net margin.
• Insiders sold more than 1.3 million shares worth approximately $34.9 million over the past 90 days, while institutional investors own 79.71% of the stock.

Shares of Fastly, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLY - Get Free Report) shot up 8.9% during trading on Wednesday. The company traded as high as $24.14 and last traded at $24.0330. Approximately 2,437,721 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average session volume of 9,042,179 shares. The stock had previously closed at $22.07.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on FSLY shares. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Fastly in a report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of Fastly in a report on Wednesday, September 23rd. KeyCorp restated an "overweight" rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Fastly in a report on Friday, September 18th. Canaccord Genuity Group started coverage on shares of Fastly in a research report on Friday, July 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $27.00 price target on the stock. Finally, DA Davidson increased their price objective on Fastly from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fastly presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $27.42.

Fastly Trading Up 8.0%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 3.36 and a quick ratio of 3.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -44.96 and a beta of 0.31. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $24.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.53.

Fastly (NASDAQ:FSLY - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $183.32 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $173.94 million. Fastly had a negative net margin of 11.80% and a negative return on equity of 6.31%. Fastly has set its FY 2026 guidance at 0.500-0.540 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.110-0.130 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Fastly, Inc. will post -0.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CTO Artur Bergman sold 379,602 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.16, for a total transaction of $11,448,796.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief technology officer owned 1,138,358 shares in the company, valued at $34,332,877.28. This trade represents a 25.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Jeffrey Ford sold 45,832 shares of Fastly stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.65, for a total value of $1,129,758.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 249,861 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,159,073.65. This trade represents a 15.50% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,303,861 shares of company stock valued at $34,911,221. 4.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Fastly

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in Fastly by 120.0% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,269,369 shares of the company's stock valued at $36,888,000 after acquiring an additional 692,459 shares in the last quarter. Convergence Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Fastly in the 1st quarter worth about $1,951,000. Range Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fastly in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,667,000. Castleark Management LLC bought a new position in Fastly during the 1st quarter valued at about $5,164,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP purchased a new position in shares of Fastly in the second quarter worth approximately $8,696,000. Institutional investors own 79.71% of the company's stock.

Fastly Company Profile

Fastly, Inc is a technology company that provides an edge cloud platform designed to help businesses deliver, secure, and optimize digital applications and content. Its platform processes data and applications closer to end users, supporting faster performance, improved reliability, and greater control over internet-based services.

Fastly's products and services include content delivery, application programming interface (API) acceleration, edge computing, application and API security, bot management, distributed denial-of-service protection, and observability tools.

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