Fast Results “Beat All Around”. Stock increases after receiving upgrades.
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Fastly’s revenue outlook for the first quarter and full year came in higher than Wall Street estimates.
dreamtime
Fast
rose on Thursday as analysts upgraded the cloud computing company’s stock to a “buy” after solid quarterly results and promising sales prospects.
DA Davidson analyst Rudy Kessinger upgraded the stock
Fast
(Ticker: FSLY) on Buy from Neutral and raised its 12-month price target on the stock to $17 from $8.50. Kessinger wrote in a research note that fourth-quarter results “beat all round,” citing gross margins that beat expectations for the second straight quarter as the reason for his upgrade.
Craig-Hallum analyst Jeff Van Rhee also upgraded the stock to “buy from hold” and raised his price target to $17 from $9.
“Network costs/investments [capital expenditure] down, gross margins up and the company is back in beat-raise mode. We believe stocks have bottomed and will rise over the course of 23,” Rhee wrote in a research note.
Shares of Fastly rose 20% Thursday to $16.60, which would be the stock’s highest close since May 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The stock is up for four straight days, its best four-day streak since May 2020. Fastly’s stock is up more than 100% this year.
Fourth quarter results reported quickly after Wednesday’s closing bell. The cloud computing company reported a loss of 8 cents a share on revenue of $119.3 million. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting a loss of 13 cents a share on sales of $115 million. Gross margins increased to 57% from 55.8% a year ago.
For the first quarter, the company expects sales of between 114 and 117 million US dollars. That’s higher than analysts’ expectations of $108.5 million. Fastly’s full-year revenue expectations of $495 million to $505 million also beat Wall Street’s estimate of $454 million.
“Our outlook for the first quarter and full year of 2023 reflects our continued ability to deliver strong revenue growth through improved customer acquisition and expansion in our enterprise customers, driven in part by new and enhanced products,” Chief Financial Officer Ronald Kisling said in an earnings call company.
Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com
https://www.barrons.com/articles/fastly-stock-upgrades-earnings-4d55e035?siteid=yhoof2&yptr=yahoo Fast Results “Beat All Around”. Stock increases after receiving upgrades.
