Zoom已经被推下了王位。
过去三个月,无疑我们每一个人都在用Zoom,这家视频会议公司的股票自2月19日市场高点以来已经大涨159%,然而,云计算服务供应商Fastly的股价同期上涨222%,远超Zoom。
瑞士信贷(Credit Suisse)的布拉德•泽尔尼克称,对大多数人来说,Fastly “在混乱中被漏掉了。”但如今,它显然已经“走到了舞台中央”。
Fastly是一家内容交付网络供应商,帮助用户更快地访问数字内容。该公司还提供安全服务、视频传输和所谓的边缘计算服务。它最大的客户有哪些?举几个例子:Slack、爱彼迎(Airbnb)、Spotify和Stripe等重量级公司。
对Fastly来说,过去几个月无疑很不寻常:迎来了新任首席执行官约书亚•比克斯比(他于今年2月就任),之后在5月卖出了600万股股票。
许多公司(比如Zoom)正在从居家办公中受益。很多分析师和专家认为,即使日后恢复了办公室工作,居家办公的趋势也将产生持久影响。与此同时,由于“居家隔离政策”,人们在电脑屏幕前花的时间更多了,网购、观看更多的流媒体内容和在线视频。
在这种背景下,Fastly的出色表现对于像D.A. Davidson的里希•贾鲁里亚这样的人来说并不意外。整个华尔街,贾鲁里亚给Fastly设置的目标股价最高。他说,Fastly是独一无二的,因为它搭上了两股顺风:“它可以从多个方面获益:不仅仅是在家办公,不仅仅是居家隔离;它从两头都能获利。”
该公司正在从网络流量激增和即时通讯软件Slack、GitHub等重要居家办公工具的增长中获益。贾鲁里亚不认为“居家办工带来的行为改变在现阶段是可逆的。”
与此同时,Fastly的客户还包括Wayfair和Shopify这样的电商巨头,因此能和客户一起搭上在线购物的浪潮——所以说,“他们可以从多个方面受益,而不仅仅是其中一种。”贾鲁里亚说。
该公司在5月还公布了亮眼的一季度业绩,收入较上年同期增长了38%。该公司还将今年的收益预期从2.65亿美元上调至高达2.9亿美元(贾鲁里亚认为,他们可能会进一步上调预期)。不过到目前为止,公司态度保守,认为居家办公和疫情带来的好处不会持续太久。公司管理层预计,到第二季度末(也就是接下来几周),居家工作(和激增的流量)带来的红利可能会逐渐消失。
但分析人士表示,特殊时期可能还远没有结束,保守的态度可能会收获意想不到的增长。
“我们总是说,特殊时期其实是让已经存在的趋势突然加速了。我认为Fastly就是这样。”贾鲁里亚表示,“这不是临时现象,不是说随着疫情缓和,相关红利就会消失。我认为,Fastly应该能享受到更长久的好处。”
瑞士信贷的泽尔尼克等其他分析师认为,Fastly的发展势头还拥有和疫情无关的广阔前景,那就是边缘计算。用外行的话来说,边缘计算本质上是在接近终端用户的地方进行的数据计算,这样内容交付就可以在“离应用程序的终端用户更近的地方完成,而且越来越近”,泽尔尼克解释说。他认为,“当下这种大范围向边缘计算倾斜的架构转变,未来很多年都能让Fastly受益,而不仅仅是在特殊时期。”而且,随着5G和物联网的兴起,贾鲁里亚认为Fastly可以处于有利位置。
不过,Fastly并不是唯一一家内容交付网络供应商,Cloudflare和Akamai等其他竞争对手在过去几个月也大幅上涨,它们的市值都远高于Fastly的76亿美元。和Zoom一样,Fastly的估值也不便宜,泽尔尼克指出,软件领域的估值已经处于历史高位。与此同时,疫情加快恢复正常和可能出现的流量下降也会对公司业绩造成不利影响。而且分析人士指出,该领域的准入门槛并不是都那么高。
但是贾鲁里亚和泽尔尼克等分析人士指出,Fastly是软件开发人员的首选,而且如泽尔尼克所言,更重要的是,该公司“在未来的许多年里,都可以用于搭建提供数字体验、开发移动和网络应用的状态架构。”
上周二,该股又上涨6%,盘中交易价达到每股77美元左右,但一些分析师认为还有更大的上涨空间。“如果你在一个月前问我,Zoom的发展势头能否持续,我会回答:‘不,太疯狂了。’”贾鲁里亚说。但如果你问“我是否认为,只要(Fastly)继续保持出色的运营,它的股票就还能继续涨?是的。”(财富中文网)
译者:Agatha
Zoom已经被推下了王位。
过去三个月,无疑我们每一个人都在用Zoom,这家视频会议公司的股票自2月19日市场高点以来已经大涨159%,然而,云计算服务供应商Fastly的股价同期上涨222%,远超Zoom。
瑞士信贷(Credit Suisse)的布拉德•泽尔尼克称,对大多数人来说,Fastly “在混乱中被漏掉了。”但如今,它显然已经“走到了舞台中央”。
Fastly是一家内容交付网络供应商,帮助用户更快地访问数字内容。该公司还提供安全服务、视频传输和所谓的边缘计算服务。它最大的客户有哪些?举几个例子:Slack、爱彼迎(Airbnb)、Spotify和Stripe等重量级公司。
对Fastly来说,过去几个月无疑很不寻常:迎来了新任首席执行官约书亚•比克斯比(他于今年2月就任),之后在5月卖出了600万股股票。
许多公司(比如Zoom)正在从居家办公中受益。很多分析师和专家认为,即使日后恢复了办公室工作,居家办公的趋势也将产生持久影响。与此同时,由于“居家隔离政策”,人们在电脑屏幕前花的时间更多了,网购、观看更多的流媒体内容和在线视频。
在这种背景下,Fastly的出色表现对于像D.A. Davidson的里希•贾鲁里亚这样的人来说并不意外。整个华尔街,贾鲁里亚给Fastly设置的目标股价最高。他说,Fastly是独一无二的,因为它搭上了两股顺风:“它可以从多个方面获益:不仅仅是在家办公,不仅仅是居家隔离;它从两头都能获利。”
该公司正在从网络流量激增和即时通讯软件Slack、GitHub等重要居家办公工具的增长中获益。贾鲁里亚不认为“居家办工带来的行为改变在现阶段是可逆的。”
与此同时,Fastly的客户还包括Wayfair和Shopify这样的电商巨头,因此能和客户一起搭上在线购物的浪潮——所以说,“他们可以从多个方面受益,而不仅仅是其中一种。”贾鲁里亚说。
该公司在5月还公布了亮眼的一季度业绩,收入较上年同期增长了38%。该公司还将今年的收益预期从2.65亿美元上调至高达2.9亿美元(贾鲁里亚认为,他们可能会进一步上调预期)。不过到目前为止,公司态度保守,认为居家办公和疫情带来的好处不会持续太久。公司管理层预计,到第二季度末(也就是接下来几周),居家工作(和激增的流量)带来的红利可能会逐渐消失。
但分析人士表示,特殊时期可能还远没有结束,保守的态度可能会收获意想不到的增长。
“我们总是说,特殊时期其实是让已经存在的趋势突然加速了。我认为Fastly就是这样。”贾鲁里亚表示,“这不是临时现象,不是说随着疫情缓和,相关红利就会消失。我认为,Fastly应该能享受到更长久的好处。”
瑞士信贷的泽尔尼克等其他分析师认为,Fastly的发展势头还拥有和疫情无关的广阔前景,那就是边缘计算。用外行的话来说,边缘计算本质上是在接近终端用户的地方进行的数据计算,这样内容交付就可以在“离应用程序的终端用户更近的地方完成,而且越来越近”,泽尔尼克解释说。他认为,“当下这种大范围向边缘计算倾斜的架构转变,未来很多年都能让Fastly受益,而不仅仅是在特殊时期。”而且,随着5G和物联网的兴起,贾鲁里亚认为Fastly可以处于有利位置。
不过,Fastly并不是唯一一家内容交付网络供应商,Cloudflare和Akamai等其他竞争对手在过去几个月也大幅上涨,它们的市值都远高于Fastly的76亿美元。和Zoom一样,Fastly的估值也不便宜,泽尔尼克指出,软件领域的估值已经处于历史高位。与此同时,疫情加快恢复正常和可能出现的流量下降也会对公司业绩造成不利影响。而且分析人士指出,该领域的准入门槛并不是都那么高。
但是贾鲁里亚和泽尔尼克等分析人士指出,Fastly是软件开发人员的首选,而且如泽尔尼克所言,更重要的是,该公司“在未来的许多年里,都可以用于搭建提供数字体验、开发移动和网络应用的状态架构。”
上周二,该股又上涨6%,盘中交易价达到每股77美元左右,但一些分析师认为还有更大的上涨空间。“如果你在一个月前问我,Zoom的发展势头能否持续,我会回答:‘不,太疯狂了。’”贾鲁里亚说。但如果你问“我是否认为,只要(Fastly)继续保持出色的运营,它的股票就还能继续涨?是的。”(财富中文网)
译者:Agatha
Zoom has been dethroned.
While the videoconferencing company we’ve no doubt all used in the past three months has seen a massive 159% rally since its Feb. 19 market peak, Fastly, a cloud computing services provider, has gained over 222% in the same time frame—and now clinches the title of the best-performing work-from-home stock during the pandemic.
For most people, Credit Suisse’s Brad Zelnick argues, Fastly "was lost in the shuffle a little bit.” But now, it’s certainly “come to the forefront.”
Fastly is a content delivery network (CDN) company that helps users view digital content more quickly. The company also provides security, video delivery, and so-called edge computing services. Some of its biggest customers? Heavy hitters like Slack, Airbnb, Spotify, and Stripe, to name a few.
Add in a new CEO, Joshua Bixby (who took the helm in February), and a follow-on stock sale of 6 million shares in May, and it’s certainly been an eventful few months for Fastly.
Many firms (like Zoom) are benefiting from the shift to working from home—a trend many analysts and experts expect will have a lasting impact even after employees return to their offices. Meanwhile, shelter-in-place orders have led people to spend more time in front of screens, to shop online, and to digest more streaming and video content.
Against that backdrop, Fastly’s outperformance isn’t a surprise for those like D.A. Davidson’s Rishi Jaluria. But Jaluria, who has the highest price target on the Street for the stock, suggests Fastly is unique because it has two tailwinds going for it: “It can benefit in multiple ways: It’s not purely work from home; it’s not purely shelter in place; it kind of has areas that benefit on both sides,” he tells Fortune.
The company is reaping gains from the surge of online traffic and from work-from-home staples like messaging app Slack and GitHub. And Jaluria, for one, doesn’t think these “behavioral changes you get from work from home are reversible now.”
Meanwhile, with e-commerce giants like Wayfair and Shopify as customers, Fastly has been able to ride the surge in online shopping along with its customers—so there are “multiple ways they benefit, not just one or the other,” Jaluria notes.
It hasn’t hurt that Fastly also reported a strong first quarter in May, as revenue popped 38% from the year-ago quarter. The company also raised earnings guidance for the year from $265 million to as much as $290 million (although Jaluria, for one, thinks they might raise estimates still more). Yet the company has thus far been conservative about how long the benefits of work from home and the pandemic may last. Management has projected the benefits of work from home (and the surge in traffic) may start dying down by the end of the second quarter (in the next couple weeks).
But analysts note the pandemic is likely long from over and suggest that conservatism opens up the possibility of a surprise to the upside.
“We always talk about what’s happening with COVID is accelerating existing trends. I think that’s exactly what’s happening with Fastly,” Jaluria argues. “This isn’t a temporary thing, and as things ease up, that benefit goes away. I think these are longer-lasting benefits that Fastly should benefit from.”
Other analysts like Credit Suisse’s Zelnick think there’s a bigger picture to Fastly’s momentum that isn’t tied to the pandemic: edge computing. In layman’s terms, edge computing is essentially data computing that is done closer to the end user, and content delivery is “further distributed and pushed out closer and closer to the end user of these applications,” Zelnick explains. It’s this “broader edge computing and this broader architectural shift that’s happening [that] is going to benefit Fastly for many years to come, not just during a time of pandemic,” he contends. And in light of the rise of 5G and the Internet of things, Jaluria suggests Fastly may be well positioned.
Yet Fastly certainly isn’t alone as a content delivery network, and other competitors like Cloudflare and Akamai have also seen a boost in the past few months, all boasting market caps much larger than Fastly’s $7.6 billion. And as far as valuations go, much like Zoom, Fastly doesn’t come cheap, and Zelnick points out valuations in the software space are historically elevated. Meanwhile, a faster return to normalcy from the pandemic and potential decrease in traffic could hurt the business as well, and analysts point out barriers to entry in the space aren’t all that high.
But those like Jaluria and Zelnick note Fastly is a favorite among software developers, and more important, Zelnick argues, the company is “leveraged to the future state architecture for digital experiences and mobile and web applications for many, many years to come.”
Fastly gained another 6% last Tuesday and was trading at roughly $77 a share in intraday trading, but some analysts see even more room to run for the stock. “If you were to ask me a month ago if I thought Zoom’s run-up was sustainable, I would have said, ‘No, this is insane,’” Jaluria says. But "do I think [Fastly’s stock] can continue working as long as they continue to execute as well as they have been? Yes.”