Short Interest in Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) Rises By 7.4%

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 8,000,000 shares, an increase of 7.4% from the March 15th total of 7,450,000 shares. Approximately 5.4% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,720,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.7 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Akamai Technologies news, CMO Kim Salem-Jackson sold 2,600 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.30, for a total value of $320,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 27,663 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,410,847.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, COO Adam Karon sold 8,394 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were 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 directly owns 21,046 shares in the company, valued at $2,278,439.96. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CMO Kim Salem-Jackson sold 2,600 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.30, for a total transaction of $320,580.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 27,663 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,410,847.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 33,353 shares of company stock worth $3,688,883. Insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AKAM. Fairfield Bush & CO. bought a new position in shares of Akamai Technologies during the 1st quarter worth about $107,000. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in Akamai Technologies by 16.0% in the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 4,491 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $536,000 after acquiring an additional 620 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its stake in Akamai Technologies by 6.6% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 21,740 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $2,596,000 after acquiring an additional 1,346 shares during the period. Cibc World Market Inc. increased its stake in Akamai Technologies by 2.3% in the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 10,741 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $1,282,000 after acquiring an additional 237 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in Akamai Technologies by 48.7% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 2,789 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $333,000 after acquiring an additional 914 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 94.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. HSBC cut shares of Akamai Technologies from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $109.00 to $96.00 in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $115.00 target price on shares of Akamai Technologies in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Akamai Technologies from $78.00 to $81.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Akamai Technologies from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $128.00 to $135.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Akamai Technologies from $130.00 to $136.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $121.27.

Akamai Technologies Stock Down 0.9 %

AKAM stock opened at $101.33 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.16, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. Akamai Technologies has a 1 year low of $76.85 and a 1 year high of $129.17. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $110.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $112.62. The firm has a market cap of $15.35 billion, a PE ratio of 28.71, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 0.72.

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The technology infrastructure company reported $1.69 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.10. Akamai Technologies had a net margin of 14.37% and a return on equity of 14.90%. The firm had revenue of $995.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $999.09 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.01 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Akamai Technologies will post 4.84 EPS 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.