Piper Sandler Downgrades Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) to Neutral

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) was downgraded by equities researchers at Piper Sandler from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. They presently have a $100.00 target price on the technology infrastructure company’s stock, down from their prior target price of $112.00. Piper Sandler’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 30.33% from the stock’s previous close.

AKAM has been the subject of a number of other reports. Citigroup cut their price objective on Akamai Technologies from $104.00 to $102.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group assumed coverage on Akamai Technologies in a report on Monday, December 16th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $110.00 price objective for the company. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Akamai Technologies from $115.00 to $112.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 8th. Hsbc Global Res raised Akamai Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Finally, TD Cowen cut Akamai Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price target for the company from $125.00 to $98.00 in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $107.90.

Akamai Technologies Stock Down 21.7 %

AKAM opened at $76.73 on Friday. Akamai Technologies has a fifty-two week low of $76.50 and a fifty-two week high of $113.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 1.33 and a quick ratio of 1.33. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $96.15 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $97.90. The company has a market capitalization of $11.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.54, a P/E/G ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 0.65.

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The technology infrastructure company reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by ($0.33). The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Akamai Technologies had a return on equity of 14.47% and a net margin of 12.65%. On average, analysts anticipate that Akamai Technologies will post 4.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Akamai Technologies

In related news, EVP Paul C. Joseph sold 4,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $91.57, for a total value of $366,280.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,104 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,115,633.28. The trade was a 14.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Edward J. Mcgowan sold 10,782 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.71, for a total value of $1,064,291.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 12,716 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,255,196.36. This represents a 45.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 15,782 shares of company stock worth $1,523,951. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Akamai Technologies

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AKAM. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Akamai Technologies during the 4th quarter worth approximately $477,454,000. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in Akamai Technologies by 15.6% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,116,398 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock worth $489,383,000 after acquiring an additional 690,341 shares during the last quarter. National Pension Service boosted its position in Akamai Technologies by 595.3% during the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 318,912 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock worth $30,504,000 after acquiring an additional 273,043 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its position in Akamai Technologies by 43.4% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 778,208 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock worth $74,473,000 after acquiring an additional 235,394 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Akamai Technologies by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,197,009 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock worth $423,066,000 after acquiring an additional 202,746 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.