Quality Investor

Fastly, Inc.

Rank #288StartupWatchlistCompare with other stocks

FSLY · Nasdaq · Technology

Fastly, Inc. (FSLY) — Rank #288 by gross profitability (GP/assets 0.24) · ROE -12.3% · Piotroski F-Score 6 / 9.

As-of 2026-10-30 · CIK 0001517413 · all metrics point-in-time as of the filing date.

About

Fastly, Inc. operates an edge cloud platform for processing, serving, and securing its customer's applications in the United States, the Asia Pacific, Europe, and internationally.

Show more

The edge cloud is a category of Infrastructure as a Service that enables developers to build, secure, and deliver digital experiences at the edge of the internet. The company offers network services to speed up and optimize the delivery of web and application traffic; content delivery network, such as dynamic site acceleration, origin shield, instant purge, surrogate keys, programmatic control, content compression, reliability features, fanout, domainr, modern protocols and performance services; staging environment; and video/ streaming solutions and services, including live streaming, live event monitoring, video on demand, cache reservation, and media shield. It also provides security solutions, such as DDoS protection, next-gen WAF, bot management, API and ATO protection, advanced rate limiting, privacy, and compliance services; load balancing; image optimization; and origin connect. In addition, the company offers professional services comprising managed and response security services; managed CDN; and support plans services. It serves customers operating in ecommerce, streaming media, gaming, digital publishing, and high tech to financial services industries. The company was formerly known as SkyCache, Inc. and changed its name to Fastly, Inc. in May 2012. Fastly, Inc.

was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Industry
Software - Application
Sector
Technology
State
DE
Filer Category
Large accelerated filer
Fiscal Year End
December 31
Website
fastly.com

Company Snapshot

P/S is the primary valuation lens for pre-profit companies.

Market Cap

—

P/E (annual)

—

P/S (annual)

—

P/B

—

P/OCF (annual)

—

Shareholder Yield

—

Employees

1,140

Industry

Software - Application

Exchange

Nasdaq

10/12

Flags passed

FSLY passes 10/12 quality flags

2 cautions to review

  • CAUTION
    Dilution above 2%

    Annual share count increase exceeds 2%. May be acceptable for high-growth companies funding talent via stock compensation

  • CAUTION
    Disclosure regression

    A previously-disclosed line item is no longer reported — worth checking the filing for why

  • PASS
    Gross margin holding
  • PASS
    FCF not negative from investment
  • PASS
    Revenue not declining
  • PASS
    Operating margin holding
  • PASS
    Free cash flow intact
  • PASS
    Passes safety gate
  • PASS
    Balance sheet stable
  • PASS
    No competitive retreat
  • PASS
    SBC not compressing margin
  • PASS
    No valuation convergence

Strengths Revenue growth accelerating · Deferred revenue growing · RPO outpacing revenue

A count of the 12 warning flags that could be evaluated. Unweighted: colour follows the worst flag.

Quality Profile

Profitability

1/1 pass
GP / assets
0.24
Return on equity
-12.3%
Gross margin trend
PASS

Safety

1/1 pass
Balance-sheet safety
PASS
Debt / equity
0.52
Current ratio
3.36×
Net cash
$13.54M

Cash Flow

3/3 pass
Positive FCF
PASS
Cash-backed earnings
PASS
Accruals healthy
PASS
SBC / revenue
18.8%

Growth

1/2 pass
Revenue growth
14.8%
Piotroski F-Score
6 / 9
Share dilution
6.4%

Burn rate (cash flow) is the primary read at this stage — TAM and product-market fit aren't metrics this dashboard tracks.

Profitability

Does it make money well?

No warning flags · GP/assets 20th percentile of 36 SIC 7372 peers

Gross profitability (GP / assets)

0.24

Primary signal (Novy-Marx).

20th pctl of 36 SIC 7372 peers

Return on equity

-12.3%

Gross margin

57.1%

17th pctl of 36 SIC 7372 peers

Revenue growth (YoY)

14.8%

RPO growth (YoY)

44.8%

Remaining performance obligations growth — RPO > revenue = forward demand building.

Gross margin improving

Margin trend vs prior year.

PASS

Operating Leverage

2022202320242025
Revenue vs COGS
Revenue vs OpEx
Op. Income vs Revenue

Growth

Revenue CAGR (3Y)

13.0%

Revenue CAGR (5Y)

16.5%

Earnings CAGR (3Y)

—

FCF CAGR (3Y)

—

Cash Flow Health

Is the cash real?

No warning flags · FCF 154% above net income

Free cash flow

$65.75M

Operating cash flow minus capex.

Positive free cash flow

PASS

FCF vs net income

154.0%

(FCF − net income) ÷ |net income|. Positive: cash above earnings. Negative: below.

FCF not below net income

Fails when free cash flow is below net income (yellow flag).

PASS

Accruals healthy

Cash-backed earnings.

PASS

SBC / revenue

18.8%

Stock-based comp intensity.

Balance Sheet Strength

Can it survive a storm?

Caution: Dilution above 2% · net cash $13.54M, F-Score 6/9

Balance-sheet safety

Composite anti-fragile check.

PASS

Debt / equity

0.52

58th pctl of 32 SIC 7372 peers (best = lowest)

Current ratio

3.36×

71st pctl of 36 SIC 7372 peers

Quick ratio

3.17×

Net cash

$13.54M

Cash & equivalents minus total debt.

Piotroski F-Score

6 / 9

Fundamental-strength score (0-9).

Valuation

Is the price reasonable?

No warning flags

Capital allocation quality

Composite score

2.3 / 5

Fair
Share count trend
6.4%0/5 Weak
Buyback timing
N/AN/A
Dividend growth consistency(non-payer or broken streak)
0 yr3/5 Good
Net debt trajectory(deleveraging)
2.8%4/5 Strong

Lifecycle Phase History

20202025
Hypergrowth
Startup

Price History

FSLY-45.7% · -11.5% CAGRSPY+82.9% · +12.8% CAGR