Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $121.27.

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird raised Akamai Technologies from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $128.00 to $135.00 in a report on Thursday, March 7th. StockNews.com raised Akamai Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 25th. HSBC downgraded Akamai Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and cut their price target for the company from $109.00 to $96.00 in a report on Thursday, February 15th. KeyCorp raised their price target on Akamai Technologies from $134.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $115.00 price target on shares of Akamai Technologies in a report on Wednesday, February 14th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Akamai Technologies news, COO Adam Karon sold 8,394 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.26, for a total value of $908,734.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 21,046 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,278,439.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CMO Kim Salem-Jackson sold 2,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.30, for a total transaction of $320,580.00. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 27,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,410,847.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Adam Karon sold 8,394 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.26, for a total value of $908,734.44. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 21,046 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,278,439.96. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 33,353 shares of company stock worth $3,688,883. 1.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Akamai Technologies

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Akamai Technologies in the 4th quarter worth approximately $325,242,000. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in Akamai Technologies in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $218,201,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Akamai Technologies by 59.9% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,095,168 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $164,052,000 after buying an additional 785,055 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Akamai Technologies by 254.5% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 854,763 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $65,817,000 after buying an additional 613,612 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its stake in shares of Akamai Technologies by 4,398.1% during the first quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 432,039 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $51,581,000 after buying an additional 422,434 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.28% of the company’s stock.

Akamai Technologies Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ AKAM opened at $101.50 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $108.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $112.41. The company has a market cap of $15.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. Akamai Technologies has a 12-month low of $76.85 and a 12-month high of $129.17.

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The technology infrastructure company reported $1.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.59 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $995.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $999.09 million. Akamai Technologies had a net margin of 14.37% and a return on equity of 14.90%. The company’s revenue was up 7.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.01 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Akamai Technologies will post 4.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Akamai Technologies Company Profile

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.