Analyst Update: Oramed Pharma, Akamai, Barnes & Noble

Analysts are weighing in today on drugmaker Oramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ORMP), cloud concern Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM), and book retailer Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE:BKS). Here's a quick look at today's brokerage notes on ORMP, AKAM, and BKS.

• MLV started coverage on ORMP with a "buy" opinion, and lifted its price target by $3 to $30, sending the shares up 20% to hit $7.48. The lofty target represents a 301% premium to Oramed Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s current perch, but is in line with the shares' recent price action, up 63.8% year-to-date. Elsewhere, sentiment in the options pits has been call-heavy, as ORMP's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.47 stands in the 34th percentile of its annual range. Said another way, short-term speculators have rarely been this call-skewed on the stock over the past year. Meanwhile, short sellers could be getting antsy, as these bearish bets represent more than four weeks' worth of pent-up buying demand, at ORMP's average pace of trading.


• CLSA cut its price target on AKAM by $1 to $82 while reaffirming its "buy" opinion, yet the shares are 0.3% higher at $71.65. On the charts, Akamai Technologies, Inc. has been a technical juggernaut, with the shares up 35.3% year-over-year. However, traders have been favoring puts over calls more than usual in the options pits, as AKAM's 50-day International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) put/call volume ratio of 0.75 stands higher than 93% of all similar readings from the past year. Meanwhile, the brokerage bunch is mostly bullish on the equity, as 71% of covering analysts rate it a "strong buy," and AKAM's consensus 12-month price target of $73.95 sits in territory not charted in more than a decade.


• The shares of BKS are 6.7% higher at $23.77, after Craig-Hallum initiated coverage on the security with a "buy" rating and a $36 price target -- a level not conquered since early 2008. Furthermore, today's bump pulls of the shares out of the red for 2015, now up 2.5% year-to-date. Calls have been prominent in the options pits, as Barnes & Noble, Inc.'s 50-day ISE/CBOE/PHLX call/put volume ratio of 4.83 reads in the 80th percentile of its annual range. However, not all analysts have boarded the bullish bandwagon: just one of four brokerage firms offers up a "strong buy" endorsement.