T - Fastly Peer Limelight Networks' Shares Gain Double Digits on Streaming TV Strength
Many internet-based services are having a heyday amid shelter-in-place orders. As a result, content delivery network (or CDN, web infrastructure tapped by organizations to deliver data and content to customers) stocks are booming. Upstart Fastly (NYSE: FSLY) is up over 300% this year as e-commerce and edge network computing are in high demand.
But TV streaming is also on the rise as consumers spend much of their entertainment time in front of a screen at home. While it hasn't boomed quite like Fastly has, video CDN specialist Limelight Networks (NASDAQ: LLNW) has been doing well too, with a more than 80% return so far in 2020. After a solid second-quarter 2020 report, I still say this one's a buy.
Limelight Networks has been reporting double-digit year-over-year growth since last fall, when Disney's (NYSE: DIS) Disney+ made its debut. Limelight has maintained that momentum even as the coronavirus pandemic has sidelined global live events like sports. In Q2 2020, revenue built on the 32% advance reported in Q1. Profit margins rallied as well when Comcast's (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Peacock arrived in April, and again when AT&T's (NYSE: T) HBO Max launched in May, partly via Limelight's distribution network.