Akamai Technologies (AKAM) Stock Moves -0.68%: What You Should Know
The latest trading session saw Akamai Technologies (AKAM) ending at $119.36, denoting a -0.68% adjustment from its last day's close. The stock outperformed the S&P 500, which registered a daily loss of 1.47%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a drop of 1.27%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw a decrease of 1.5%.
Heading into today, shares of the cloud services provider had gained 6.23% over the past month, outpacing the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 4.98% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.77% in that time.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Akamai Technologies in its upcoming release. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $1.59, indicating a 16.06% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $996.99 million, up 7.46% from the year-ago period.
In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $6.08 per share and a revenue of $3.81 billion, indicating changes of +13.22% and +5.45%, respectively, from the former year.
Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Akamai Technologies. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.15% lower within the past month. At present, Akamai Technologies boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at valuation, Akamai Technologies is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 19.75. This signifies a discount in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 27.59 for its industry.
Also, we should mention that AKAM has a PEG ratio of 2.03. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. As the market closed yesterday, the Internet - Services industry was having an average PEG ratio of 2.45.
The Internet - Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 34, putting it in the top 14% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM) : Free Stock Analysis Report
