Quarterly earnings results are a good time to check in on a company’s progress, especially compared to its peers in the same sector. Today we are looking at Fastly (NYSE:FSLY) and the best and worst performers in the content delivery industry.
The amount of content on the internet is exploding, whether it is music, movies and or e-commerce stores. Consumer demand for this content creates network congestion, much like a digital traffic jam which drives demand for specialized content delivery networks (CDN) services that alleviate potential network bottlenecks.
The 4 content delivery stocks we track reported a slower Q4. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 2.7% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was in line.
Amidst this news, share prices of the companies have had a rough stretch. On average, they are down 16.7% since the latest earnings results.
Fastly (NYSE:FSLY)
Founded in 2011, Fastly (NYSE:FSLY) provides content delivery and edge cloud computing services, enabling enterprises and developers to deliver fast, secure, and scalable digital content and experiences.
Fastly reported revenues of $140.6 million, up 2% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 1.5%. Despite the top-line beat, it was still a softer quarter for the company with full-year EPS guidance missing analysts’ expectations and a significant miss of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.
“We are pleased to report record fourth quarter revenue, exceeding the high-end of our guidance range,” said Todd Nightingale, CEO of Fastly.
Fastly pulled off the highest full-year guidance raise but had the slowest revenue growth of the whole group. Still, the market seems discontent with the results. The stock is down 0.9% since reporting and currently trades at $6.58.
Read our full report on Fastly here, it’s free.
Best Q4: F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV)
Initially started as a hardware appliances company in the late 1990s, F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) makes software that helps large enterprises ensure their web applications are always available by distributing network traffic and protecting them from cyberattacks.
F5 reported revenues of $766.5 million, up 10.7% year on year, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 7.2%. The business had a strong quarter with a solid beat of analysts’ billings estimates and an impressive beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.
F5 pulled off the biggest analyst estimates beat among its peers. However, the results were likely priced into the stock as it’s traded sideways since reporting. Shares currently sit at $267.41.
Is now the time to buy F5? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free.
Weakest Q4: Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM)
Founded in 1999 by two engineers from MIT, Akamai (NASDAQ:AKAM) provides software for organizations to efficiently deliver web content to their customers.
Akamai reported revenues of $1.02 billion, up 2.5% year on year, in line with analysts’ expectations. It was a softer quarter as it posted full-year guidance of slowing revenue growth.
Akamai delivered the weakest performance against analyst estimates and weakest full-year guidance update in the group. As expected, the stock is down 17.8% since the results and currently trades at $80.65.
Read our full analysis of Akamai’s results here.
Cloudflare (NYSE:NET)
Founded by two grad students of Harvard Business School, Cloudflare (NYSE:NET) is a software-as-a-service platform that helps improve the security, reliability, and loading times of internet applications.
Cloudflare reported revenues of $459.9 million, up 26.9% year on year. This result topped analysts’ expectations by 1.8%. More broadly, it was a mixed quarter as it also produced a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates but full-year EPS guidance missing analysts’ expectations.
Cloudflare achieved the fastest revenue growth among its peers. The stock is down 13.4% since reporting and currently trades at $122.58.
Read our full, actionable report on Cloudflare here, it’s free.
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