What happened
Shares of edge computing specialist Fastly (FSLY -1.12%), visual search and media platform Pinterest (PINS 0.43%), and telehealth company Teladoc Health (TDOC 0.30%) all jumped sharply on Friday. Shares of the three companies gained as much as 4.7%, 3.1%, and 3.7%, respectively. As of 11:10 a.m. EDT, however, Fastly was up 4%, Pinterest was up 2.1%, and Teladoc was up 3.4%.
The three stocks' moves higher were likely fueled primarily by a bullish day for tech stocks -- particularly growth tech stocks like these three. In addition, all three of these companies' stocks have taken severe beatings recently. Some investors may think the stocks' pullbacks have gone too far, creating buying opportunities.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Capturing bullishness in the market on Friday for tech stocks, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is up 0.9% as of this writing -- handily ahead of the Dow Jones Industrial Average's 0.5% gain and even the S&P 500's 0.6% rise. Many growth stocks like Fastly, Pinterest, and Teladoc, however, were up 1% or more on Friday.
Tech seems to be attempting to rebound from a tough week. Even including the Nasdaq Composite's move higher on Friday, it is down 1% for the week.
Shares of Fastly are down 20% over the past month, with most of its decline being driven by the company's worse-than-expected second-quarter results. The quarter was negatively impacted by a brief outage on its platform during the period. Revenue only grew 14% year over year -- a significant deceleration from previous quarters.
Over the same time frame, Pinterest stock is down 25% as investors mull over the company's surprising 5% year-over-year decrease in U.S.-based monthly active users.
Teladoc has slid 8% over the past month as the stock has been subject to a range of lowered 12-month price targets following its wider-than-expected second-quarter loss per share. High expectations from investors have made it very difficult for the company to please the Street.
Now what
Looking ahead, it's likely that all three of these companies will still continue growing their revenue at rapid rates. Each of these businesses still appears to be early in its growth story. But high valuations come with high expectations, leading to significant volatility when the market becomes less certain about long-term growth prospects.
Perhaps Friday's gains are a sign that the market is starting to like these stocks again at these more conservative valuations.
