Morgan Stanley Downgrades Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) to Underweight

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) was downgraded by analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They presently have a $85.00 price target on the technology infrastructure company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price points to a potential upside of 14.12% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also commented on AKAM. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $88.00 price objective (up previously from $80.00) on shares of Akamai Technologies in a research report on Friday, May 9th. KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Akamai Technologies in a research report on Friday, June 6th. They set an “underweight” rating and a $63.00 price target for the company. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Akamai Technologies from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Akamai Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, July 20th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their target price on shares of Akamai Technologies from $107.00 to $105.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $99.58.

Akamai Technologies Stock Performance

Akamai Technologies stock opened at $74.48 on Tuesday. Akamai Technologies has a fifty-two week low of $67.51 and a fifty-two week high of $106.80. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $78.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $81.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.18. The stock has a market cap of $10.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.08, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.76.

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The technology infrastructure company reported $1.70 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.58 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. Akamai Technologies had a return on equity of 14.09% and a net margin of 11.26%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.64 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Akamai Technologies will post 4.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Akamai Technologies

In related news, EVP Kim Salem-Jackson sold 13,157 shares of Akamai Technologies stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.33, for a total value of $1,004,273.81. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 43,575 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,326,079.75. This trade represents a 23.19% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Paul C. Joseph sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.74, for a total value of $388,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 32,349 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,514,811.26. This trade represents a 13.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. AGF Management Ltd. lifted its holdings in Akamai Technologies by 12.4% in the second quarter. AGF Management Ltd. now owns 38,950 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $3,107,000 after acquiring an additional 4,304 shares during the period. Fox Run Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of Akamai Technologies during the 2nd quarter valued at about $269,000. Metis Global Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Akamai Technologies by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. Metis Global Partners LLC now owns 10,294 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $821,000 after purchasing an additional 294 shares during the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Akamai Technologies by 15,498.5% during the 2nd quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 111,529 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $8,895,000 after purchasing an additional 110,814 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Savant Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Akamai Technologies in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $309,000. Institutional investors own 94.28% of the company’s stock.

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.