Akamai Technologies (AKAM) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

Akamai Technologies (NASDAQ:AKAM) closed at $87.02 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.01% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 4.89%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 5.86%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 4.7%.

Coming into today, shares of the cloud services provider had lost 10.61% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector lost 13.39%, while the S&P 500 lost 13.88%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from AKAM as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.16, up 5.45% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $749.38 million, up 6.07% from the year-ago period.

AKAM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.92 per share and revenue of $3.09 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +9.58% and +6.96%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for AKAM. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 4.13% higher. AKAM currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

In terms of valuation, AKAM is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 17.52. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 23.88, which means AKAM is trading at a discount to the group.

We can also see that AKAM currently has a PEG ratio of 1.46. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Internet - Services industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.67 as of yesterday's close.

The Internet - Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 99, which puts it in the top 39% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.