Akamai Technologies rises as Guggenheim turns bullish

Monami

29/07/2024 14:57

** Akamai Technologies'  AKAM.O  shares up ~1% at $97.90
early Mon after Guggenheim upgrades to "buy" from "neutral"
    ** Brokerage sets PT at $128, implying 32% upside to stock's
Fri close
    ** AKAM set up to transform itself to a platform, and can
leverage leadership position in content delivery network (CDN)
business to deliver security and cloud solutions, Guggenheim
analyst team led by John DiFucci said in note
    ** CDN technology foundational to both security and cloud,
which should improve characteristics such as gross retention,
price stability, and therefore, value of the aggregate total
business, Guggenheim wrote
    ** Now, 15 of 24 analysts covering AKAM rate stock "strong
buy" or "buy", 8 have "hold", while 1 recommends "sell", per
LSEG
    ** Median PT of $115 down from $133.50 on Apr 29
    ** With move on Mon, AKAM shares down 17% YTD vs Nasdaq's
 .IXIC  17% advance
    ** In contrast, Guggenheim downgrades cybersecurity firm
Fortinet  FTNT.O  to "neutral", saying it was "too early" in its
upgrade last Aug given that co has missed or lowered its numbers
in each qtr it reported results since then
    ** FTNT shares on Mon up 0.7% at $57.40

 (Lance Tupper is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed
are his own)
 ((lance.tupper@thomsonreuters.com
lance.tupper@tr.com 1-646-279-6380))