Why Fastly Stock Fell During and After Trading Hours on Wednesday

What happened

Shares ofFastly(NYSE:FSLY)rose by as much as 4.2% Wednesday before settling down to a 2.6% loss on the day. After market hours, it suffered an even steeper decline, plunging by over 17%.

So what

Fastly announced that CFO Adriel Lares is vacating his position. He will continue leading the company's finance team until a successor is appointed, after which he'll stay on during a transition period. The company said that it is conducting a search for Lares' replacement, and has hired an unnamed executive search firm to aid in the hunt.

As for the quarterly results, published after market hours, the first quarter saw thetech companylift its total revenue by 35% on a year-over-year basis to almost $85 million. But its adjusted net loss deepened to $14 million ($0.12 per share), from the first-quarter 2020 shortfall of $6 million.

The revenue improvement was due to higher customer counts and a modest improvement in client spending. Profitability was hurt by higher costs in sales/marketing and research and development.

Now what

While no investor likes when a company executive steps down, Lares' transition appears to be smooth, untroubled, and peaceful.

Fastly's first quarter is more of a concern, as the company missed the average analyst estimates on both the top and bottom lines. This compounds a wider investor trend of moving away from certain tech stocks in favor of titles seen as having more potential to gain from our emergence from the pandemic.