Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) Sets New 12-Month Low After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Oppenheimer Holdings lowered their price target on the stock from $70.00 to $60.00. Oppenheimer Holdings currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Akamai Technologies traded as low as $45.80 and last traded at $45.84, with a volume of 10,566,627 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $53.28.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on AKAM. DA Davidson lowered Akamai Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $57.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, May 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $58.00 price target (down from $65.00) on shares of Akamai Technologies in a research note on Wednesday, May 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “hold” rating and set a $58.00 price target (down from $62.00) on shares of Akamai Technologies in a research note on Wednesday, May 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Akamai Technologies from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 3rd. Finally, SunTrust Banks, Inc. downgraded Akamai Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $54.00 to $82.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. The company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $62.76.

In related news, Director Frederic V. Salerno bought 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 27th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $46.83 per share, for a total transaction of $234,150.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 62,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,912,451.36. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO F Thomson Leighton bought 21,196 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 31st. The shares were bought at an average price of $47.17 per share, with a total value of $999,815.32. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer now directly owns 227,057 shares in the company, valued at $10,710,278.69. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have purchased a total of 66,410 shares of company stock valued at $3,233,594 over the last 90 days. 3.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Cadence Capital Management LLC raised its position in Akamai Technologies by 0.6% in the second quarter. Cadence Capital Management LLC now owns 4,733 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock worth $236,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Cleararc Capital Inc. raised its position in Akamai Technologies by 0.9% in the first quarter. Cleararc Capital Inc. now owns 4,248 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock worth $254,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Advantus Capital Management Inc raised its position in Akamai Technologies by 0.4% in the first quarter. Advantus Capital Management Inc now owns 17,334 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock worth $1,035,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Trust Co raised its position in Akamai Technologies by 2.1% in the first quarter. Trust Co now owns 4,447 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock worth $266,000 after buying an additional 90 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. raised its position in Akamai Technologies by 2.2% in the first quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 4,622 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock worth $258,000 after buying an additional 99 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.19% of the company’s stock.

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $49.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $57.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.34 and a beta of 0.66.

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 25th. The technology infrastructure company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $608.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $604.51 million. Akamai Technologies had a net margin of 12.67% and a return on equity of 10.97%. Akamai Technologies’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.64 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Akamai Technologies, Inc. will post $2.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Akamai Technologies

Akamai Technologies, Inc is engaged in providing cloud services for delivering, optimizing and securing content and business applications over the Internet. The Company is involved in offering content delivery network (CDN) services. Its services include the delivery of content, applications and software over the Internet, as well as mobile and security solutions.