Earnings results often indicate what direction a company will take in the months ahead. With Q4 behind us, let’s have a look at F5 (NASDAQ:FFIV) and its peers.
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 8% since the latest earnings results.
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. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 7.2%. Overall, it was a strong quarter for the company with an impressive beat of analysts’ billings estimates and a solid beat of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.
“F5’s alignment with significant secular trends, a more stable IT spending environment, and our strong execution led to another record quarter,” said François Locoh-Donou, F5’s President and CEO.
F5 achieved the biggest analyst estimates beat of the whole group. The stock is up 9.3% since reporting and currently trades at $295.
Is now the time to buy F5? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free .
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, outperforming analysts’ expectations by 1.8%. It was a very good quarter. Cloudflare exceeded analysts’ billings expectations. Revenue also beat, accelerating from last quarter, something that the market tends to reward.
Cloudflare achieved the fastest revenue growth among its peers. The market seems happy with the results as the stock is up 7.1% since reporting. It currently trades at $151.50.
Is now the time to buy Cloudflare? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free .
Weakest Q4: 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, exceeding analysts’ expectations by 1.5%. Still, it was a softer quarter as it posted full-year EPS guidance missing analysts’ expectations significantly and a significant miss of analysts’ EBITDA estimates.
Fastly delivered the highest full-year guidance raise but had the slowest revenue growth in the group. As expected, the stock is down 27.9% since the results and currently trades at $7.26.
Read our full analysis of Fastly’s results here.
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. This print was in line with analysts’ expectations. More broadly, it was a softer quarter as it recorded full-year guidance of slowing revenue growth and full-year EPS guidance missing analysts’ expectations.
Akamai had the weakest performance against analyst estimates and weakest full-year guidance update among its peers. The stock is down 20.6% since reporting and currently trades at $77.87.
Read our full, actionable report on Akamai here, it’s free.
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