What happened
Shares of Fastly (FSLY +6.05%), CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD +2.13%), and DocuSign (DOCU +1.54%) all surged higher on Monday. The three tech stocks rose as much as 8.2%, 5.3%, and 4.9%, respectively.
Shares were likely up primarily due to broader-market bullishness for growth stocks on Monday. Though the S&P 500 was down about 0.2% as of 3 p.m. EDT, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up approximately 0.4%. Also, many growth stocks like Fastly, CrowdStrike, and DocuSign were up several percentage points or more.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Fastly stock's gain comes after shares have taken a severe beating in 2021. Even including today's gain, the edge computing company's stock is down 42% year to date. Though a chief financial officer transition plan that Fastly announced early last month may have raised some concerns and helped contribute to the stock's recent beating, much of it appears to be related to shares cooling off after huge outperformance last year and overall bearish sentiment in the market toward growth stocks like Fastly in much of 2021.
The stock's sharp rise on Monday suggests that some investors believe Fastly's decline may have gone too far.
In the company's first-quarter earnings release last month, Fastly said its revenue grew 35% year over year to $85 million.
CrowdStrike and DocuSign stocks are likely similarly rebounding from their tumbling share prices earlier this year. Like Fastly, the two companies' stocks have been negatively impacted by a broader-market trend of growth stocks selling off. But some investors appear to be trying to be opportunistic, with demand for growth stocks finally starting to improve.
Cybersecurity specialist CrowdStrike announced impressive fiscal first-quarter performance last week, with revenue increasing 70% year over year to $178 million. Also last week, e-signature company DocuSign said its fiscal first-quarter revenue increased 58% year over year to $469.1 million.
Despite rising sharply on Monday, CrowdStrike and DocuSign stocks are still underperforming the S&P 500 this year.
Now what
Fastly management said in its first-quarter earnings release that many of the strong tailwinds that helped the company in 2021 appear to be permanent -- even as the economy begins to reopen. This is contrary to some of the investing themes that suggest growth stock beneficiaries of lockdowns will perform significantly worse in 2021 than they did in 2020.
CrowdStrike and DocuSign's recently announced fiscal first-quarter results similarly suggest the two companies continue to see impressive customer and financial momentum as the economy reopens. Consider that CrowdStrike and DocuSign both lifted their full-year financial guidance when they reported their fiscal first-quarter results.
