Fastly (NYSE:FSLY) Shares Up 5.3% After Analyst Upgrade

Fastly, Inc. (NYSE:FSLY)’s share price shot up 5.3% during trading on Friday after Freedom Capital upgraded the stock to a strong-buy rating. The company traded as high as $21.30 and last traded at $21.4050. 697,928 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 93% from the average daily volume of 10,260,518 shares. The stock had previously closed at $20.32.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Fastly to $18.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Craig Hallum lowered shares of Fastly from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $24.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Fastly from $13.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Evercore assumed coverage on shares of Fastly in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $24.00 price target for the company. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Fastly to $27.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $23.11.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Charles Lacey Compton III sold 9,313 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.79, for a total value of $193,617.27. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,063,945 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,119,416.55. This represents a 0.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Richard Wong sold 2,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.48, for a total transaction of $41,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 1,239,301 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,423,680.48. The trade was a 0.20% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 274,529 shares of company stock worth $4,761,780. 4.20% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Fastly

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Fastly by 84.6% in the 1st quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,381 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 633 shares in the last quarter. Sound Income Strategies LLC bought a new position in Fastly during the 1st quarter valued at about $44,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fastly by 39.8% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,204 shares of the company’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 627 shares during the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Fastly during the 4th quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Align Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fastly in the fourth quarter worth approximately $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 79.71% of the company’s stock.

Fastly Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.46 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $18.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.24 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.58 and a beta of 0.34.

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.