Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) has been given an average recommendation of “Buy” by the nineteen research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $80.59.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on AKAM shares. Cowen cut shares of Akamai Technologies from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $86.00 to $73.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Akamai Technologies from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $82.00 to $79.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 15th. Piper Jaffray Companies set a $94.00 price objective on shares of Akamai Technologies and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank reduced their price objective on shares of Akamai Technologies from $73.00 to $66.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 30th. Finally, BidaskClub raised shares of Akamai Technologies from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, October 19th.

In related news, SVP Aaron Ahola sold 1,122 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.81, for a total transaction of $76,082.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,035 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $273,613.35. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AKAM. Focused Wealth Management Inc bought a new position in Akamai Technologies during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lifted its position in Akamai Technologies by 5,021.8% during the fourth quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 2,029,933 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 1,990,300 shares during the last quarter. Private Capital Group LLC lifted its position in Akamai Technologies by 148.5% during the fourth quarter. Private Capital Group LLC now owns 661 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 395 shares during the last quarter. Exane Derivatives bought a new position in Akamai Technologies during the third quarter valued at $101,000. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its position in Akamai Technologies by 394.2% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 1,448 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $106,000 after purchasing an additional 1,155 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.93% of the company’s stock.

Shares of NASDAQ AKAM traded up $0.81 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $67.90. The stock had a trading volume of 47,596 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,165,601. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 2.03 and a quick ratio of 2.03. The stock has a market cap of $11.03 billion, a PE ratio of 35.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 0.69. Akamai Technologies has a 12-month low of $57.18 and a 12-month high of $83.08.

Akamai Technologies declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Monday, October 29th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.10 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the technology infrastructure company to purchase up to 10.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Akamai Technologies Company Profile

Akamai Technologies, Inc provides cloud services for delivering, optimizing, and securing content and business applications over the Internet in the United States and internationally. The company offers Web and mobile performance solutions, such as Ion, a situational performance solution; Dynamic Site Accelerator that helps in consistent Website performance; Image Manager that automatically optimizes online images; CloudTest to conduct load testing and other analysis of Websites in a pre-production environment; mPulse that provides real-time Website performance data to provide insight about end-user experiences on a Website; and Global Traffic Management, a fault-tolerant solution.

See Also: How Important is Technical Analysis of Stocks

Analyst Recommendations for Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM)

Receive News & Ratings for Akamai Technologies Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Akamai Technologies and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.