Deutsche Bank downgraded Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM) stock to "sell" from "hold," and slashed its price target to $58 from $64 -- the lowest on Wall Street. This bearish tilt echoes last week's comments from Cowen, which said AKAM stock slid to the number 23 spot on its "conviction list," after coming in fifth last November.
Today's downgrade is relatively rare for the cloud service provider. Currently, nine covering analysts maintain a strong "buy" rating, compared to six that carry a tepid "hold" recommendation. Plus, the average 12-month price target of $79.63 is a nearly 12% premium to last Friday's close at $71.23.
Signs of skepticism are starting to creep up elsewhere, too. After hitting an eight-month low in mid-February, short interest on AKAM stock shot up 7.6% in the most recent reporting period to 7.11 million shares. This represents 4.5% of the security's available float, or 6.4 times the average daily pace of trading.
Looking at the charts, AKAM has been steadily climbing off its early January low of $57.18, up almost 19%. And while the shares are down 4.6% to trade at $67.96 in reaction to this morning's bear note, they could find support at their 80-day moving average, currently located at $68.42, while just below here is the $67 region -- home to Akamai Technologies' 80-day and 120-day trendlines.