The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Technology company by 0.06% to 17.31 million shares with purchase of 10134.0 shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 11.01% valued currently at $1.26 billion. In addition, BlackRock Fund Advisors raised its holdings by 0.47 million to 10.5 million shares. And Amundi Asset Management US, Inc. has lifted its position by 7.18% or 0.25 million shares – to 3.68 million shares.
With over 2.41 million Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $70.75 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $170.38 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -22.84% and its price on 03/13/23 lost nearly -1.68%. Currently, there are 157.11M common shares owned by the public and among those 154.56M shares have been available to trade.
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Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 154 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 94 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 494,018 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 60 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 428,781 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Akamai Technologies Inc. are Canada Pension Plan, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, and Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund. Canada Pension Plan owns 7.38 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $535.42 million. The company sold 3603.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 4.69% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 39817.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 4.83 million shares valued at over $350.39 million and representing 3.07% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund bought 5891.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 3.66 million shares at a value of $265.88 million. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.33% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) opened at $71.71, down -$0.25 from a prior closing price of $71.96. However, the script later moved the day high at 72.22, down -1.68%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -5.59% and -21.33% over the past three months. AKAM shares are trading -16.07% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -35.41% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $71.55 and touched a high of $123.25 over the same period. AKAM has an average intraday trading volume of 1.57 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -7.71%, -14.79%, and -20.08% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Akamai Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM) shares accounts for 95.40% of the company’s 157.11M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 41.12%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 55.34% and 2.85% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $11.32B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.80. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 21.64, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $3.27. The company has a PEG of 1.80 and a Quick Ratio of 2.40 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.00. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.11% over the week and 2.26% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) will achieve an EPS of $1.27 for the current quarter, $1.33 for the next quarter and $5.59 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.23 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.32. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.49 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to decrease by -17.00%, and 10.46% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 12.00% over the next five years, compared to 17.80% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 21 brokerage firm advisors rate Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.70. Specifically, 5 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 13 of the 21 advise that investors “hold,” and 2 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the AKAM, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. RBC Capital Mkts stated their Sector Perform rating for the stock in a research note on February 15, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $100-$85. Loop Capital coverage for the Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) stock in a research note released on February 07, 2023 offered a Hold rating with a price target of $91. Guggenheim was of a view on January 24, 2023 that the stock is Sell, while Citigroup gave the stock Neutral rating on July 22, 2022, issuing a price target of $118- $105. Robert W. Baird on their part issued Neutral rating on May 04, 2022.
