Fastly (NASDAQ:FSLY) Shares Gap Up - Time to Buy?

Key Points

• Fastly shares jumped from a $21.49 close to a $22.69 open and last traded near $24.15. The stock’s average analyst rating remains “Hold,” with an average price target of $25.33, despite several recent upgrades and price-target increases.
• Fastly exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting $0.15 in adjusted EPS versus $0.07 expected and revenue of $183.32 million versus $173.94 million estimated. However, the company remains unprofitable, with a negative net margin and analysts expecting a full-year loss.
• Institutional ownership is substantial at 79.71%, with several major investors increasing their positions. Meanwhile, insiders sold 568,894 shares worth nearly $13.95 million over the past 90 days, including sizable sales by the CEO and CFO.

Fastly, Inc. (NASDAQ:FSLY - Get Free Report)'s stock price gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $21.49, but opened at $22.69. Fastly shares last traded at $24.1450, with a volume of 1,310,431 shares trading hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Freedom Capital upgraded Fastly to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Evercore restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Fastly in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group started coverage on Fastly in a research report on Friday, July 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $27.00 price target on the stock. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $29.00 price target on shares of Fastly in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Fastly from $27.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fastly presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $25.33.

Fastly Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $3.53 billion, a PE ratio of -41.96 and a beta of 0.36. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $22.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.15. The company has a quick ratio of 3.36, a current ratio of 3.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

Fastly (NASDAQ:FSLY - Get Free Report) last posted 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. Fastly had a negative net margin of 11.80% and a negative return on equity of 6.31%. The company had revenue of $183.32 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $173.94 million. 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 expect that Fastly, Inc. will post -0.29 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fastly

In other news, CEO Charles Compton, III sold 55,579 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.39, for a total value of $1,188,834.81. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 914,235 shares in the company, valued at $19,555,486.65. This trade represents a 5.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Richard Wong sold 148,015 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.61, for a total value of $4,234,709.15. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 1,091,286 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,221,692.46. The trade was a 11.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 568,894 shares of company stock worth $13,946,933 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 4.20% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its holdings in Fastly by 2,795.2% in the fourth quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 4,789,185 shares of the company's stock worth $48,754,000 after purchasing an additional 4,623,767 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Fastly by 100.5% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 7,031,952 shares of the company's stock worth $204,349,000 after purchasing an additional 3,524,763 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in shares of Fastly by 1,683.4% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 2,932,680 shares of the company's stock worth $53,844,000 after buying an additional 2,768,234 shares during the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its position in Fastly by 3,941.1% during the 2nd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,329,006 shares of the company's stock valued at $9,383,000 after buying an additional 1,296,119 shares in the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Fastly during the fourth quarter valued at $11,657,000. 79.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Fastly

Fastly, Inc operates an edge cloud platform designed to accelerate, secure and enable modern digital experiences. The company offers a suite of services including a content delivery network (CDN), edge compute, load balancing, web application firewall (WAF) and DDoS protection. Fastly’s real-time architecture allows customers to seamlessly deploy software logic at the network edge, reducing latency by bringing applications and content closer to end users.

Founded in 2011 by Artur Bergman, Fastly has evolved from a pure-play CDN provider into a comprehensive edge cloud platform.

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