Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) Lifted to Buy at Craig Hallum

Craig Hallum upgraded shares of Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Friday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has $125.00 price objective on the technology infrastructure company’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $110.00.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on AKAM. StockNews.com downgraded Akamai Technologies from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Friday, May 10th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Akamai Technologies from $117.00 to $106.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Akamai Technologies from $115.00 to $92.00 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 10th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Akamai Technologies in a research note on Monday, July 8th. They set a sector outperform rating and a $110.00 target price for the company. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price objective on Akamai Technologies from $138.00 to $119.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $116.00.

Akamai Technologies Price Performance

Shares of Akamai Technologies stock opened at $101.51 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $92.46 and a 200 day moving average of $101.88. Akamai Technologies has a 52 week low of $87.59 and a 52 week high of $129.17. The company has a market cap of $15.46 billion, a PE ratio of 25.25, a P/E/G ratio of 4.57 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a quick ratio of 3.25, a current ratio of 3.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76.

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The technology infrastructure company reported $1.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.53 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $979.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $977.67 million. Akamai Technologies had a return on equity of 15.02% and a net margin of 16.12%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.01 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Akamai Technologies will post 4.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Akamai Technologies declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, May 9th that permits the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the technology infrastructure company to repurchase up to 13.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CTO Robert Blumofe sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.34, for a total value of $265,020.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now directly owns 24,729 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,184,559.86. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO F Thomson Leighton acquired 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 14th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $92.68 per share, with a total value of $2,038,960.00. Following the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,342,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $217,114,114.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CTO Robert Blumofe sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $88.34, for a total value of $265,020.00. Following the transaction, the chief technology officer now owns 24,729 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,184,559.86. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,000 shares of company stock worth $826,460 over the last three months. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Akamai Technologies

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Akamai Technologies by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,763,963 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $1,932,009,000 after acquiring an additional 124,359 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of Akamai Technologies by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,935,648 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock worth $319,751,000 after purchasing an additional 32,000 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Akamai Technologies in the fourth quarter worth approximately $325,242,000. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Akamai Technologies by 7.6% during the 1st quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 2,102,926 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $228,714,000 after acquiring an additional 149,042 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Akamai Technologies by 25.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,732,750 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $156,088,000 after acquiring an additional 347,626 shares during the last quarter. 94.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Akamai Technologies

Akamai Technologies, Inc provides cloud computing, security, and content delivery services in the United States and internationally. The company offers cloud solutions to keep infrastructure, websites, applications, application programming interfaces, and users safe from various cyberattacks and online threats while enhancing performance.