Sifting through countless of stocks in the IT Services industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems or Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems and Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems and Inc.

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. 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.

NetScout Systems, Inc. provides carrier service assurance, cybersecurity, and Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) solutions to protect digital business services against disruptions. It offers nGeniusONE management software to predict, preempt, and resolve network and service delivery problems, as well as facilitate the optimization and capacity planning of their network infrastructures; and specialized platforms and analytic modules to analyze and troubleshoot traffic in radio access and Wi-Fi networks; and Omnis Insights, a solution that is designed to generate a high-fidelity and curated dataset that strengthens observability and cybersecurity operations. Its platform provides real-time generation and analysis of information-rich, high-volume network-derived data for use its applications and partner networks. In addition, it offers ISNG, a real-time information platform that provides insights to optimize network performance; packet flow systems that delivers targeted network traffic access to a range of monitoring and cybersecurity tools and systems, including the nGeniusONE application; vSTREAM, a virtualized form factor version; Infinistream, an advanced passive network probe; and markets test access points that enables full and non-disruptive access to network traffic. Further, the company provides cybersecurity solutions to protect networks against DDoS attacks under the Arbor solutions, including Arbor Sightline, Arbor Threat Mitigation System, Arbor Insight, Arbor Edge Defense, and Omnis Cyber Intelligence solutions. It serves enterprise customers in financial services, technology, manufacturing, healthcare, utilities, education, transportation, and retail; mobile, wireline, and cable operators, internet service providers, and cloud providers industries; and government and associated agencies through a direct sales force, and indirect reseller and distribution channels. The company was incorporated in 1984 and is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts.

Latest IT Services and Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems, Inc. Stock News

As of September 11, 2026, Fastly, Inc. had a $3.7 billion market capitalization, compared to the IT Services median of $822.0 million. Fastly, Inc.’s stock is up 144.2% in 2026, up 20.7% in the previous five trading days and up 214.67% in the past year.

Currently, Fastly, Inc. does not have a price-earnings ratio. Fastly, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $687.2 million with a -11.8% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 23.3%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $0.525 per share for the current fiscal year. Fastly, Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.

As of September 11, 2026, NetScout Systems, Inc. had a $2.8 billion market cap, putting it in the 58th percentile of all stocks. NetScout Systems, Inc.’s stock is up 38.1% in 2026, up 0.4% in the previous five trading days and up 51.96% in the past year.

Currently, NetScout Systems, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 23.4. NetScout Systems, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $883.2 million with a 13.7% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 12.7%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $2.740 per share for the current fiscal year. NetScout Systems, Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.

How We Compare Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems and Inc. Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems and Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems and Inc. Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Fastly, Inc.	FSLY	F
NetScout Systems, Inc.	NTCT	C

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Fastly, Inc. has a Value Score of 10, which is Ultra Expensive. NetScout Systems, Inc. has a Value Score of 53, which is Average.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems or Inc. has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems or Inc. is the better investment when it comes to value.

Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems and Inc.’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
Fastly, Inc.	FSLY	B
NetScout Systems, Inc.	NTCT	A

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Fastly, Inc. has a Quality Score of 61, which is Strong. NetScout Systems, Inc. has a Quality Score of 91, which is Very Strong.

The Quality Grade Winner: NetScout Systems, Inc.

As you can clearly see from the Quality Grade breakdown above, NetScout Systems, Inc. has a better overall quality grade than Fastly, Inc.. For investors who are looking for companies with higher quality than others in the same industry, NetScout Systems, Inc. could be a good stock to add to their portfolios. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.

Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems and Inc.’s Estimate Revisions Grades

Company	Ticker	Earnings Estimate
Fastly, Inc.	FSLY	B
NetScout Systems, Inc.	NTCT	B

Earnings estimate revisions scores consider the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, positive surprises beget further positive surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Estimate revisions offer an indication of what analysts are thinking about the short-term prospects of a firm. Estimate revisions are based on the statistical significance of a firm’s last two quarterly earnings surprises and the percentage change in its consensus estimate for the current fiscal year over the past month and past three months.

Fastly, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 75, which is Positive. NetScout Systems, Inc. has a Earnings Estimate Score of 63, which is Positive.

The Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Earnings Estimate Revisions Grade breakdown above, both Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems and Inc. have a grade of B. For those focusing solely on a company’s estimate revisions, other financial metrics will need to be evaluated to determine whether Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems or Inc. is a better fit.

Other Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems and Inc. Grades

In addition to Quality, Estimate Revisions and Value, A+ Investor also provides grades for Growth and Momentum.

Momentum grades help uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming.

Growth investing builds on the idea that stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth outperform those of slower-growth companies. AAII measures growth through consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems and Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems or Inc. Stock?

Overall, Fastly, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 10, Estimate Revisions Score of 75 and Quality Score of 61.

NetScout Systems, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 53, Estimate Revisions Score of 63 and Quality Score of 91.

Comparing Fastly, Inc., NetScout Systems and Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.