Investors Purchase High Volume of Akamai Technologies Put Options (NASDAQ:AKAM)

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders bought 10,603 put options on the company. This is an increase of 49% compared to the average volume of 7,111 put options.

Akamai Technologies Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of AKAM stock traded up $0.33 on Thursday, reaching $74.14. 538,448 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,915,228. Akamai Technologies has a 52 week low of $67.51 and a 52 week high of $106.80. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $82.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $92.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.83 billion, a PE ratio of 22.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 0.80.

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The technology infrastructure company reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.52 by ($0.33). The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. Akamai Technologies had a return on equity of 14.35% and a net margin of 12.65%. As a group, analysts forecast that Akamai Technologies will post 4.6 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Aaron Ahola sold 4,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.92, for a total transaction of $323,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 25,211 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,040,074.12. This represents a 13.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Mani Sundaram sold 10,683 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.52, for a total value of $924,293.16. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,988 shares in the company, valued at $2,075,441.76. This represents a 30.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,394 shares of company stock valued at $2,653,043 over the last ninety days. 1.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Akamai Technologies

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. TCTC Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Akamai Technologies by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. TCTC Holdings LLC now owns 702 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its position in Akamai Technologies by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 19,991 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $1,912,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Akamai Technologies by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,867 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $752,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Delta Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Akamai Technologies by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Delta Capital Management LLC now owns 2,790 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock worth $267,000 after buying an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Akamai Technologies by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 30,096 shares of the technology infrastructure company’s stock valued at $2,879,000 after purchasing an additional 140 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 94.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Akamai Technologies in a report on Friday, February 21st. Bank of America cut shares of Akamai Technologies from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $125.00 to $100.00 in a report on Friday, February 21st. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Akamai Technologies from $115.00 to $107.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Akamai Technologies from $102.00 to $90.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Akamai Technologies from $76.00 to $72.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Akamai Technologies has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $104.75.

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.